When Dreams Become Reality
by Okarin Losigre
Summary: Riku meets a boy named Sora at a party. Just a day later, his world was attacked by thousands of strange creatures. Sora and a strange girl he's with are somehow involved and save Riku and a few of his friends. What secrets are they hiding?
1. New Friends, New Enemies

Disclaimer: Ok, people should know obviously, absolutely nothing in this story belongs to me except for the random pieces of the plot I made up.

Don't like the story, don't complain to me, stop reading! (yes, I say that a lot because it annoys me to no end)

Enjoy!

**Chapter One: New Friends, New Enemies**

Riku looked around the large, crowded room as he leaned against the wall. He wondered why he even came to this party at all.

Then he remembered. Axel had been bored that morning and decided to sneak into his apartment while he was sleeping and tied him to the bed.

"Wake up Riku!"

"What are you doing Axel? I'm trying to sleep."

"There's a party tonight at Xemnas' house (mansion). Do you want to come?"

"No, Axel. Now untie me."

"But it'll be fun!" Axel put on the saddest expression he could make as he stared at Riku who was struggling to free himself.

'I don't go to parties, Axel. You should know that by now."

"If you don't, I'll bring Larxene in here."

Riku was not happy to here that. Larxene was a masochistic sadist and wouldn't mind coming to torture him at Axel's request. Actually, she would be excited.

Riku started to pale and Axel knew he had won.

Axel really would call Larxene over if he refused, and Riku knew that very well.

"Alright, I'll go."

"Yes! We'll have a lot of fun. Everyone will be there. You won't regret it."

Then, Axel put a pocket knife on the bed next to the still tied Riku and ran from the room.

Riku almost silently mumbled, "Bastard." as his 'friend' left.

It had taken hours for Riku to free himself, but when he did, he had no time to relax as there was only about an hour until the party according to a laughing Roxas who had come to tell him the details, at Axel's request of course.

And, there he was. Standing by the wall of Xemnas' mansion, which seemed more like a castle, avoiding people like the plague. Especially Axel.

Riku then heard something next to him and snapped out of his thoughts of revenge on Axel.

"Hi. What are you doing over here?" Riku didn't recognize the voice.

There was a boy standing next to him, most likely around his age, seventeen. He had spiky caramel colored hair and bright blue eyes staring at him expectantly.

"Hey. I'm not really into parties. What's up?"

"Not much. I just wanted to know why you weren't having fun with everyone else."

Riku laughed leaving his visitor thoroughly confused.

"Clouds are like shadows in the sky."

The boy only blinked obviously waiting for him to explain his random statement.

"They eat away at the light preventing it from reaching the ground. I've always wondered where clouds go after they are out of sight. I wonder if maybe they travel to other worlds creating their shadows in other strange places."

The boy waited a few moments for a sign that Riku was finished.

"I guess it's possible."

Riku was just a bit surprised by the fact that someone actually didn't think he was crazy for thinking about other worlds, and a person he didn't even know, no less. Riku decided to continue his thoughts since his visitor had accepted them.

"If there are other worlds, I want to see them. I want to know what they would be like."

"That would be nice, to see all the other worlds, if there are any that is."

"Well then, if I find a way to travel to other worlds, I'll bring you with me, and if you find a way to get to other worlds, you'll bring me with you. Deal?"

Riku waited for a response from his visitor. He could hardly believe he was making such a deal with a complete stranger.

"Deal."

The boy extended his hand to shake Riku's.

The handshake was short and afterwards, Riku's visitor grinned widely, and Riku couldn't help but smile.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the room, Axel was staring in disbelief as he saw his antisocial friend, Riku, shake hands with a complete stranger and, did he just smile?

Roxas walked up behind the tall boy with fire-engine- red hair asking, "What are you staring at Axel?"

"Riku just smiled at a stranger."

"Yeah right, Axel. You're just seeing things."

"I'm not kidding, Rox!"

Axel was slightly annoyed that his spiky blonde haired, shorter boyfriend didn't believe him.

"Whatever you say."

After his visitor left, Riku left the wall to join Axel since his anger had been lost after he met his new, friend? He was glad to know someone believed him. When he reached Axel though, he was not happy.

His friend was giving him a strange look like he was suspicious of something. What was he thinking?

"Axel? What's up?"

"Who's you're new friend?"

"Just some guy."

"Oh really? He made you smile though. What were you talking about?"

"Other worlds."

"Riku, you're crazy, and apparently your friend is too. What's his name? Is he new here?"

Riku had to think for a while. He hadn't even thought to ask his visitor for a name or anything involving him personally for that matter.

"You didn't ask, did you?"

"No."

"Well he looked pretty cute. I bet you'd like to see him strapped to your bed."

"Only you, Axel."

As if on queue, Roxas came up and punched Axel in the face.

"What was that for, Rox?"

"Stop being a pervert."

Riku couldn't help but laugh at this. Roxas always knew how to handle his perverted, temperamental boyfriend.

"What are you laughing at? You seemed very happy talking to a complete stranger about other worlds. You're obviously insane."

Then again, Roxas was also very blunt and got on his nerves.

Riku decided to go for a walk.

Axel told Roxas he was going to go home and that he would see him later. He certainly had no intention of going home just yet.

Two hours later, Riku walked into his apartment and heard a strange muffled noise. He carefully followed the noise to his bedroom hoping that Axel hadn't done what he thought he did… or worse.

He opened the door and, tied up, blindfolded, and gagged in the corner was a small figure. As he got closer, he realized that it was his visitor from earlier. He had to remember to beat Axel up next time he saw him.

Riku untied the ropes and removed the blindfold and gag.

The boy seemed very grateful to be freed.

"Hi. It's you again. It's nice to see someone who isn't completely insane!"

"Strangely, people call me insane a lot."

"Why?"

"I talk about other worlds. People find the concept highly unbelievable and crazy."

"At least you don't have bright red hair or kidnap people you don't even know."

"By the way, what's your name?"  
"Shouldn't you tell me your name first?"

This boy was strange, but Riku went along with it anyway.

"My name's Riku."

"Sora. It's nice to meet you, Riku."

"Yeah."

Okay, Sora was definitely strange, but he had to admit, his strangeness didn't really bother him. Not even a little.

"Where exactly are we?"

"We're in my apartment. The guy with the red hair is my friend he can be crazy sometimes, but he's not as bad as some other people I know." Like Larxene. Riku shivered just thinking about her.

"Why did he tie me up in your apartment?"

"My best guess would be, he wanted to know how I'd react. Axel can be a little… perverted."

"…"

"Yeah, well. Where do you live?"

"I'm staying in an apartment."

"Well we're in the only apartment complex in Twilight Town, so it's somewhere in here."

"Room 803."

"You're in luck that's just down the hall to the right."

"Wow. That's a coincidence. I'll see you around then."

"See you around Sora. By the way, there's a festival tomorrow night. I'm going with a few of my friends. Everyone's allowed to attend you should go too. It's in the sandlot. If you don't know where that is, ask anyone on the street or follow the music and the smell of food."

"Sounds fun. I'll be there."

"See you there, then.

"See you there."

With that, Sora left the apartment and turned right to go to his own. Riku stared after him for a few minutes before getting up and getting ready to sleep.

The next day, Axel was nowhere to be found, and when he knocked on Sora's apartment door, nobody answered. He did hear something coming from inside though.

That night, Riku met Zexion, Demyx, and Xemnas waiting in Station heights.

"Where are Axel and Roxas?"

Xemnas, a tall eighteen year old boy with long silver hair answered, "They said they'd be a little late."

Riku was afraid of that. Usually when Axel was late, he was up to something, but Roxas was late too so it couldn't be that bad. Hopefully. Riku was more concerned that he wasn't able to find Sora and hoped that he was already in the sandlot. He wanted to talk to him again.

"Hey, Riku? What are you thinking about?" The hyperactive blonde Demyx brought him back to face his friends. Axel and Roxas had now joined them.

"So, Riku… what did you do with my present last night?"

Axel had just barely finished the sentence when he was sent flying backwards by Riku's fist.

"You're insane. You kidnap a stranger and tie him up in my bedroom. I released him as soon as I found him and he left. That's all. His name's Sora though."

"What are you talking about?" This time the other silver haired boy, this one seventeen, Zexion had beaten Demyx, Xemnas, and Roxas to the question they all wanted to ask.

"Our friend Riku had a talk with a stranger yesterday at the party about other worlds. He seemed happy with him, so I brought the boy to his room. No harm done."

This time, it was Roxas who punched Axel sending him flying.

Axel seemed to be getting punched a lot lately.

Xemnas spoke up again, "I think we should go to the festival unless we want someone to end up in the hospital."

"Good idea." Axel had chimed in from the ground against a wall about 20 feet away.

Riku scanned the sandlot for Sora, but couldn't find him anywhere.

About a half an hour later, the festival was in full swing, but still there was no Sora in sight. Maybe he decided not to come. It's not that Riku didn't want to hang out with his friends. He just wanted to talk to someone who actually believed in the possibility of there being other worlds. Either his friends hadn't noticed him occasionally spacing out, or they just ignored it as one of the strange things that Riku did.

Suddenly, there was screaming and running. Riku looked toward the source of the screams and saw some strange creatures attacking people. Suddenly Sora came out of nowhere with some huge key and began fighting the creatures. He could here two voices screaming to each other. A male and female. The male voice was quickly identified as Sora.

"Kairi, why are they here?"

"You tell me, Sora. You opened the path to this world. You should know more than me about this."

"I'm not good at figuring those things out Kairi. You're usually the one piecing together the puzzles."

"I would be able to think a lot more clearly if I wasn't being ATTACKED by over FIVE THOUSAND HEARTLESS!!"

"Okay I get it. We'll figure it out later. Right now, we have to get rid of these heartless."

Riku was confused. What were heartless? The girl mentioned Sora making a path to this world. That means they _know _there are other worlds. And they've been to others too. He would have to confront Sora about it as well as the girl, Kari or whatever. What else was he hiding?

Riku heard cheering and brought his attention back to the battle. It was amazing the way Sora and the girl fought.

Sora seemed to effortlessly fight off the many heartless attacking with his huge, there were two keys now? As he watched the girl, he was also amazed. She fought with two short, thin swords, but huge gusts of wind emanated from the blades with every swipe slicing through the opponents killing them immediately.

Although the scene in front of him was amazing, he couldn't help but notice that the creatures just kept coming. It seemed that no matter how many were killed, more came. He then heard the voices again.

"Sora, there are too many. We can't go on like this forever! There must be tens of thousands of heartless lining up to get here. We have to get out of here and fast!"

"But Kairi, we can't just leave these people to turn into heartless!"

"Well, we can't risk becoming heartless ourselves! You're the Keyblade Master! What would happen to all the worlds if you became a heartless and I couldn't bring you back?!"

"But…"

"No buts! If we aren't around, who's going to stop this from happening to other worlds?!"

"Kairi! Please!"

"We have to go Sora. Go get the gummi ship. I'll hold them off as long as I can and meet you there! Go!"

"Can I at least bring a few people with us?"

"We've interfered enough in this world Sora. Go!"

"Please."

"Fine, but hurry!"

Riku was stunned. Sora and the girl were so strong, yet even they had trouble handling the creatures. Twilight Town was doomed, and him and his friends were going to go down with it.

"Demyx, Zexion, Axel, Roxas, Xemnas!!"

He suddenly heard someone scream from behind him, "Riku!" It was Sora.

"What is it Sora?" Riku wasn't sure what was going on until he remembered.

_"Well then, if I find a way to travel to other worlds, I'll bring you with me, and if you find a way to get to other worlds, you'll bring me with you. Deal?"_

_Riku waited for a response from his visitor. He could hardly believe he was making such a deal with a complete stranger._

_"Deal."_

_The boy extended his hand to shake Riku's._

_The handshake was short and afterwards, Riku's visitor grinned widely, and Riku couldn't help but smile._

"Riku, gather a few friends you want to take with you. We're leaving this world."

"Why?"

"It's dangerous here and I'm leaving. I'm not going to forget our deal either."

Riku was happy to hear that him and at least a few of his friends would live through this.

Again He called out to his friends, "Demyx, Zexion, Axel, Roxas, Xemnas!!"

Roxas and Axel came running to him, "What's up Riku?"

"You'll never believe me until we get there, but we're going to another world!"

Axel looked over at the boy he now knew was Sora who looked worried and excited at the same time. Although he wasn't really sure he believed in other worlds, he followed his friend.

Roxas told Riku that Xemnas was attacked by one of the creatures. He looked at Sora who just shook his head. Riku took that as a sign that Xemnas was gone.

"What about Demyx and Zexion?"

"We're over here."

Demyx was unconscious, but Zexion assured Riku that he was still alive and well. He had just fainted from shock.

Riku nodded at Sora, signaling that he was done.

Sora finally spoke for the first time since Riku's hunt for his friends.

"We have to go now! Kairi seems to be at her limit. If we want to leave, we have to get to the gummi ship now, so follow me!"

The group of five hesitantly followed the stranger to a strange vehicle which they guessed was what Sora had referred to as a 'gummi ship'.

Riku was excited and spoke in awe, "So this is how we'll get to another world, huh?"

Out of nowhere a girl with dark reddish-brown hair and green eyes wearing a silver t-shirt and jeans appeared.

"Kairi, how is the situation?"

"Sora, there were thousand of heartless, though I was able to hold them off for a while. I couldn't handle it any longer. They're on their way here, so we better hurry."

Everyone gathered into the gummi ship, and Sora took the controls. The ship lifted into the air, and before they could even think, Twilight Town was out of sight.

Sora controlled lasers on the ship to fight heartless all around them. Three of the five who had never been off land were getting motion sickness, Demyx was still unconscious, and Riku was too excited to notice the fact that he was getting sick before he passed out.

When he awoke, they were on land again. Everything looked different though. They had done it. They were in another world.

Axel was the one to speak up first.

"Who the fuck are you two?!"


	2. Joining the Adventure

Disclaimer: Same as chapter 1.

Yes, Many characters are different in this fanfiction. I don't care if you liked the originals better. It's my fanfiction. Don't bug me.

Okay, everything else I have to say is also in the first chapter.

Again, enjoy!

**Chapter Two: Joining the Adventure**

"I'm Kairi, and he's my friend, Sora. Who are you?"

"Are you trying to be funny?"

"No, I just figured that since I told you our names, you should tell us yours."

"Why you little…"

Sora decided to jump into the conversation, "You should just give in now, Axel. Kairi won't be intimidated or annoyed by you. You can't get under her skin and she will get what she wants."

"So you're Axel. I heard you tied up Sora for no apparent reason… why?"

"It was a present for Riku."

"Ah… Riku. Someone interesting. Sora which one is he?"

Sora pointed at Riku.

Kairi looked him over. The way she stared at him made him feel so exposed. It was like she was looking into his soul. It felt strange.

Kairi noted his long silver hair and aquamarine eyes with great interest.

"Well, Riku. How does it feel to be in another world?"

"What?"

"Welcome to Radiant Gardens."

Needless to say, everyone was shocked. Riku, because his dream had come true, and everyone else, because they now knew Riku wasn't crazy after all.

"Sora and I will introduce you to a few friends we've made here and then we'll talk about what we're going to do with you."

Riku was nervous at that statement, "What you'll do with us?" He gulped loudly.

"Sora and I travel all the time fighting heartless and nobodies, none of you are strong enough at the moment to even stand a chance against a shadow."

"Why would we attack a shadow?"

Kairi looked at Demyx like he had just said the dumbest thing in the world.

"Kairi, they don't know about the different types of heartless, remember?"

"Oh, right. Sorry, I'm a little out of it right now, plus almost everyone knows about heartless. A shadow is a type of heartless. They're extremely weak and you would pretty much have to stand still for a half an hour for one of them to kill you."

"We're not that pathetic!"

"Maybe not, but you don't have any weapons or fighting experience outside of struggle battles which I hear are quite popular in your world."

"Well, we're sorry we can't all have giant keys and swords that shoot sharp wind at the opponents!" Axel had had enough of Kairi and her superiority complex.

"Well of course you can't. My swords were custom made, and only certain people can use the Keyblade."

Now even Riku was starting to get curious. "What's a Keyblade?"

"The Keyblade is a key which can lock or unlock anything. It's also the best weapon to use when fighting heartless as that's what they were created to do."

"What is a heartless?" Now Zexion's interest had been caught.

"When someone's heart is consumed by darkness or is eaten by another heartless, they become a heartless."

"You also mentioned nobodies earlier. What are they?"

"When someone with a strong heart becomes a heartless, their will lingers in their empty shell; therefore they also don't have hearts."

"Hmm… I see."

Sora had a sudden burst of energy as he practically sang, "Well now, let's go see our friends."

Kairi laughed under her breathe at her enthusiastic friend.

Everyone else wondered how someone so strange could have so much power. This obviously included both Sora and Kairi.

"Come on, Kairi! Hurry up!"

Kairi had only just realized she had been falling behind.

"I'll be there in a minute!"

Kairi knelt on the ground and sighed heavily. She would never forget this spot. She never had and never would.

"Come on Kairi!"

"I'm coming!"

She only lingered for a moment before speeding off to catch up to Sora who was way ahead of everyone else, except Riku.

"Hey guys."

"Ahhhhh!!"

Success. Kairi snuck up behind the two boys and managed to scare Riku. She was quite amused as he yelled at her. It was all she could do to not burst out laughing.

Riku just fit. No one else did. Kairi was happy with that. It had always been her and Sora. She would let Riku in because Sora wanted it that way. He needed it that way even if he didn't notice it. Of course, no one except Kairi could notice it before it could even begin to develop. Riku was now in the circle, no one else would be let in the circle. No one.

"I approve."

"Excuse me?"

Kairi expected Riku to react that way. _Everyone is so predictable_.

"You'll join us."

"Just me?"

"We'll see."

She wouldn't let anyone else in the circle, but she didn't mind a few people floating just outside the circle.

Sora was happy to have another friend to travel with. Honestly, Kairi was too. It had been a while since she had let someone other than Sora into her heart. She would trust Riku there, but she would keep an eye on him, making sure he wouldn't do anything stupid.

"Sora, Kairi?"

"What?"

"Why are you two so close?"

Kairi stopped. Sora stopped as well. Riku stopped to look back to see Sora watching Kairi and Kairi looking like she would disintegrate and float away on the wind.

"Kairi?"

"It's nothing. Nothing at all."

The three resumed and pretended nothing had happened, but Riku would never forget that moment. He would have to find out the answer to that question one day.

The group approached a large castle. As the castle came into sight, the five newcomers were in awe. When they reached the base of the castle, someone walked out. At first ignoring them until noticing Sora and Kairi. Kairi was the first to speak.

"Hey Cloud."

Riku looked at Cloud, studying him. He had blonde spiky hair and carried a huge sword on his back. How could he carry that thing?

"Hey Kairi, Sora. Who are the hitch hikers?"

"Riku, Demyx, Zexion, Roxas, and Axel."

"Why was I last?" He really hated Kairi.

"Does it really matter what order I say names in? It was just a random order I made up on the spot. Where's Leon?"

"He's at the computer. Aerith and Yuffie are there too."

"Thanks, Cloud. See you around!" The excitement in Sora's voice was obvious.

Cloud walked away. He wasn't sure why, but Kairi seemed different then usual. He couldn't even identify the difference as good or bad. He ignored it and focused then on Sora. Every time he came to Radiant Gardens he got so excited. The two were a strange pair, but they worked together well. Why were they bringing others with them? He decided not to think about it too much. Trying to understand those two only gave him a headache.

Meanwhile, Riku was also trying to understand Sora and Kairi. What were they hiding?

Axel only wanted to set Kairi on fire and watch her burn, mumbling, "Annoying bitch."

Roxas was starting to wonder why he was going out with Axel in the first place. His mind then wandered to Kairi and how she seemed to not care what anyone thought or did except Sora. Maybe… "Kairi."

Kairi turned around staring at Roxas, waiting for him to continue.

"Is Sora you're only friend?"

"Well, considering I just said before WE have friends in this world, Cloud, Leon, Yuffie, and Aerith being included in those friends, that wouldn't make much sense. He is my closest friend though. That much is obvious."

Roxas only blinked, as did everyone else except Sora and Kairi.

They then continued on into the castle through a secret doorway leading into a large room with a computer, two girls, and a boy around their ages.

"Leon, Aerith, Yuffie! It's great to see you again!" Sora had begun the greeting this time.

A girl with short, dark brown hair wearing shorts and a shirt that were way too short to be legal ran up to Sora and hugged him.

Another girl with longer, lighter brown hair wearing a dress quietly greeted them with, "Hello, Sora, Kairi. It's nice to see you again."

The boy, also with brown hair (so many people with brown hair in one room!) wearing jeans, a plain shirt, and way too many accessories merely nodded as to say he knew they were there.

A strange group of people, although, their group was just as strange.

Sora gave them introductions. Apparently, the girl with short shorts was Yuffie, the other girl was Aerith, and the boy was Leon. All were eighteen.

Kairi spoke with vague interest, "Well, it seems everything's fine in this world. Unlike the last world where there were thousands of heartless swarming us."

"So, Sora wanted to at least save some friends he had made in the world, and you gave in?" Leon spoke the entire sentence in monotone.

Riku mused; did strange people just gravitate to each other or something?

"Is it that obvious?"

Leon simply nodded.

Kairi continued, "Even I can be so predictable at times."

"I just know that you can't refuse to do what Sora wants for very long. Also, it's obvious you would never decide to bring a select few people with you from a world you'd been in for less than three days."

"True. Oh, well. So, any new information on the heartless and nobodies?"

"No, not yet. The data on the computer is somewhat restricted. We can't gain access to at least half of it."

"That could become a problem."

Sora frowned at this. "Why would that become a problem? We know how to defeat heartless and nobodies. Isn't that enough?"

Kairi and Leon both sighed at Sora's inability to grasp certain concepts. Kairi gave Leon a signal, silently telling him to explain as she was tired of explaining everything to her friend and their new companions.

"Although we know how to defeat them, there's a possibility that they are being controlled by someone with a plan that could cause severe damage to the worlds."

"What gives you that idea?"

"Everywhere the two of you go, heartless and nobodies swarm you. They are mindless and therefore could never organize such attacks. Therefore, someone must be controlling them in some way. If they're after the two of you, they probably know you're the Keyblade Master. One of the only reasons Kairi and I could think of to explain them targeting the Keyblade Master would be if they wanted to fill all the worlds with darkness without interference, or something along those lines."

Everyone, except Leon and Kairi, blinked. They blinked again.

No one had the nerve to break the thick, heavy silence. Sora knew that there was a possibility that the heartless and nobodies would fill the worlds with darkness, but he figured he could just kill them being that they would all just scatter trying to spread their darkness. With the possibility of someone controlling them to reach that goal, there was also a possibility of them all working together to spread their darkness one world at a time. They wouldn't be strong enough to overcome all the heartless attacking at once. They would win in no time.

Everyone else looked like they had been slapped in the face. None of them completely understood the capabilities of heartless and nobodies. They were shocked by the idea that they could conquer entire worlds with darkness. What would happen if they did? Were they all doomed to one day become heartless and nobodies?

Kairi left the room. She couldn't take any more of the atmosphere in there. It reminded her of when Destiny Islands had first been destroyed by the heartless. Sora and she refused to speak or move or even show any visible or audible signs that they were still alive. It just wasn't normal. Such an uncomfortable silence.

Leon soon joined Kairi outside. He was also having trouble breathing in that room. He had never experienced such a heavy atmosphere though.

They both just stood there. Silent. But a more comfortable silence, like the silence helped ease the tension from their previous declaration.

Meanwhile, back in the computer room, there were six people who were too shocked to even think. The tension made it difficult for them to breath.

Riku was the first to come to his senses. By the look he saw on Sora's face, Riku could tell he obviously felt the pressure of needing to prevent the impending doom being brought by the heartless and nobodies he had always fought against.

Sora always figured that they could just kill all the heartless, and then they would find a new home and stay there forever. It had never occurred to him that there might be a bigger picture behind it that he needed to piece together before he could save the worlds. He was now glad he had Kairi with him to help solve it. He was never good at puzzles. Without his friends' help, Sora would never be able to stop the darkness from spreading.

It was then that Sora became aware of his surroundings. He suddenly felt the full impact of the pressure in the air. He rushed outside to find Kairi, Leon, and Riku leaning against the railing, staring at the sky. He walked over and joined them, standing to Riku's right. Kairi was standing to Riku's left, and Leon was standing to Kairi's left.

Nobody talked. It would take a while for Sora and Riku to recover from staying in that choking atmosphere for such a long time.

After about an hour passed, everyone had left the computer room and was standing in a line against the railing. From right to left, there was Roxas, Axel, Sora, Riku, Kairi, Leon, Demyx, and Zexion.

A few more hours later, Demyx was the first to talk.

"What would happen to everyone if all the worlds were consumed by darkness?"

Kairi realized Leon wasn't in any mood to speak, so she decided to explain this time.

"We're not completely sure, but most likely, everyone would turn into heartless, and those with strong hearts would also become nobodies. All hearts would be lost. Every single one."

She paused for a moment before continuing.

"We'll need your help. Sora and I will train all six of you and Cloud. Then, you will travel with us and help us defeat the heartless and nobodies and anyone who tries to control them. That is… if you want to join us."

Riku, Axel, Roxas, Demyx, Zexion, and Leon looked at each other before all nodding.

Cloud appeared out of nowhere saying, "I guess I'm in too then."

Sora immediately brightened and got back to his normal self.

"Let's do this!"


	3. Training, Secrets, and Battles

**Chapter 3: Training, Secrets, and Battles**

Leon, Cloud, Zexion, Demyx, Riku, Axel, and Roxas were put through intense one-on-one training with Sora and Kairi for two weeks.

They had found out that both Riku and Roxas could wield keyblades, so they were personally trained by Sora.

Kairi helped the rest to find their perfect weapons (other than Leon and Cloud who already had theirs and were training with the Sora, Riku, and Roxas).

Axel used Chakrams, two large 'rings' with sharp 'spikes' protruding from them, which were always coated with fire increasing the effect of their attacks (Axel had always been a pyro).

Demyx used a Sitar to control water which he used to attack his opponents. It suited him as he was highly interested in music.

Zexion used illusions to copy his opponents. He didn't really have a weapon, but the illusions more than made up for that since he was working with eight other trained fighters with strong weapons using his illusions as a sort of distraction occasionally.

Kairi was actually somewhat impressed by their skills, not as impressed as she had been with the fact that Sora had happened to bring two keyblade wielders with them though.

They were all progressing nicely. Sora's group had greatly improved the use of their weapons (Riku and Roxas had learned many new techniques they could use with the keyblade), and Kairi's group was beginning to master the use of their completely foreign weapons.

They had improved so much, actually, that Sora and Kairi decided that the best way to further improve their skills would be for them to practice fighting against actual enemies. During the two week period, they had also learned much more about heartless and nobodies from Sora and Kairi.

Needless to say, everyone was eager to go to other worlds and fight against the heartless, as most of them would face the enemies for the first time and actually stand a chance.

Sora and Kairi gathered everyone back to the gummi ship. They had all checked that they had everything they needed before taking off. All were far too excited to remain still in their seats as they prepared to truly begin their adventure. Kairi was the one to brief them on the world they were headed towards since she and Sora had been to pretty much all of them.

"The first world we'll go to is Halloween Town. Sora and I haven't been there in a long time."

"How many worlds are there?" asked a certain hyperactive blonde and a curious pyro in unison.

"Well, if you consider the fact that our world, Destiny Islands, and your world, Twilight Town, were both destroyed by the heartless, including Radiant Gardens, there are eleven that we know of that still exist. There could be more though. We've heard rumors in Traverse Town that there's a King somewhere. Since we haven't met him, he's probably on a world we haven't visited yet. Who knows just how many there are."

Riku waited a while after Kairi had become silent to ask, "Will we go to all of them?"

"There's a possibility, but we can't be sure. For now, we'll start in Halloween Town and work from there."

Sora immediately started to steer the ship towards their destination, confidently dodging and attacking stray heartless as they came and went. Kairi was obviously used to it, but everyone else was getting nauseous, much like the first time they rode in the vehicle.

Seven teenagers who looked like they would throw up at any given moment, stumbled out of the ship followed by two other teens who were seemingly unfazed by the trip. Roxas and Demyx actually did throw up soon after they reached firm ground.

"Never again." They both said in quiet fury. "Never."

Once all had regained their composure, they took a look at their surroundings. They were in a dark forest consisting of bare trees. The moans and cries they could hear in the distance were not comforting.

Sora attempted to reassure them nothing was wrong. "Here, that's just what happens. It doesn't mean there's danger, it's just what people here do. It _is_ **Halloween** Town."

Kairi nodded in agreement, but the rest were still worried.

That's when a tall skeleton made its way toward them, effectively freezing the foreigners in place with fear just by making his presence known.

"Jack Skellington, it's nice to see you again." said a confident Kairi as Sora walked up to the skeleton as if they were good friends. At this, the rest considerably calmed down, each giving greetings to the bony figure.

"What are you two doing here? There haven't been any signs of heartless since the last time you were here. Is there something wrong?"

"Not at all," Kairi reassured him, "we're just checking in. Making sure nothing strange has been happening. Are you still trying to take over Christmas?"

"No, I've moved on. I'm going to stick to my own holiday from now on, I promise."

"Yeah right." Sora mumbled under his breathe, but everyone heard it.

Riku suddenly caught onto what they implied. "How can someone take over Christmas unless someone was already in charge of it?"

Kairi just stared at him while Sora explained. "Someone **is** in charge of it. Santa Claus runs Christmas. Were you raised under a rock or something?"

Riku just frowned. So many strange things were happening to him; he supposed there could be a Santa Claus. Besides, Sora and Kairi seemed like they had met the man in person they were so sure.

"Jack, are you sure there are no heartless?"

"Yes."

Kairi frowned. _"They're not here. What are they doing? Even if they weren't here before, they should be following us from what has happened before. Are they waiting for something?"_

"I think we should split up. Four of us should stay here while the other five go to the next world. I get the feeling the heartless, or whoever's controlling them that is, is planning on attacking this world when we leave. They know mine and Sora's strength, but they don't know yours. They'll probably still send the heartless in even if we leave a few of us behind thinking that you can't be that powerful, but you should be able to handle it, and if we sense something is wrong, we'll come back to help you."

Sora was shocked to say the least. "Kairi, that's a huge risk! If we leave a few behind and thousands of heartless attack, they could be turned into heartless!"

"I know that! We can't just leave this world unprotected though right? Also, if there are any signs that something went wrong, we can be back here in minutes. Meanwhile, if we just sit here and wait for them to make a move, we will be wasting time which we may not have much of. It's a risk we'll have to take."

Sora had calmed, but he still seemed nervous. Zexion then added, "She's right. Also, we've gotten a lot stronger since you first found us. We can handle it."

Leon just nodded in agreement.

The others also gave varying signs that they were fine with it:

"Exactly!"

"Hn."

"Yes! A challenge!"

"We can do this."

"Trust us."

"What are you waiting for?"

Sora finally caved in. "Okay. Who is going, and who is staying? Kairi?"

The girl hesitated for a moment before replying. "The two of us, Riku, Leon, and Cloud will go to the Pride Lands. Zexion, Demyx, Axel, and Roxas will stay here. Does everyone understand what they're doing?"

Everyone nodded.

The group of five once again boarded the ship and left.

They definitely did not feel well riding the ship twice in such a short period of time.

When they landed, Kairi and Sora smirked when they looked at their friends. Kairi and Sora had both become young lions (lion and lioness) while the others were a sight to behold. Cloud had become a large yellow bird with black tipped wings (how was he still holding that huge sword?!). Leon was now a baboon. Riku was, to everyone's surprise, a silver giraffe.

Sora and Kairi were both silent for a moment, but then, they couldn't restrain themselves anymore. The two burst out laughing. They rolled on the floor and laughed until their stomachs began to hurt. By the time they stopped, their three friends were sending them death glares that could probably make the devil freeze with fear… if the death glares hadn't been coming from such a hilariously strange group of animals.

The two calmed themselves noticing the anger and killing intent radiating from the source of their laughter. Even they knew when to quit while they were ahead.

Eventually, the laughs stopped (though Kairi and Sora kept sharing smirks) and Riku, Cloud, and Leon had stopped giving death glares, but they kept catching the smirks that Kairi and Sora shared and, therefore, refused to speak with them.

Riku was the first of the three angry teens to notice they were approaching a huge rock.

"What's that?"

Kairi and Sora looked back for the first time in a while and had to hold back hysterical laughter. Kairi was the first to regain her composure taking on the responsibility of answering any questions with a straight face.

"That's Pride Rock. A few friends of ours live there, including Simba, the King of this world."

"I'm guessing Simba is a lion?"

"Yes."

Cloud and Leon hadn't spoken at all. No one was surprised though. The two weren't ones to talk and ask questions, merely listening to Riku's questions and Kairi's answers.

"So, Simba will know if any heartless are around?"

"Of course."

"And he'll actually help us if there are?"

"Of course. He's the **king!** He has to protect his territory and his followers."

After thinking about it, Riku realized that his questions were idiotic to say the least. The answers were obvious, so why did he even ask? Didn't really matter, but he just wanted to figure out why he spoke to the two at all after they had laughed at him so much. Actually, he supposed he was just used to it. It would be the same if Axel had been there. He would have cracked if all three of them were there mocking him.

When they finally reached Pride Rock, Simba informed them that there were a few heartless scattered around but not enough to really cause problems. Kairi nodded to Sora who nodded back. What were they planning?

Kairi suddenly ran off in a direction different from where they had come from. What was she up to? Then, Sora went into a cave in the giant rock. Now all three were confused and were soon joined by Simba who also had no idea what they were doing.

"They just do stuff like that sometimes, and afterwards, any heartless that were in the area disappear. It seems strange, but they have some strange powers, especially Kairi. I feel bad for anyone who has to be their enemy."

"Try being their friend."

Simba, Cloud, and Riku froze.

Did Leon… talk?

It was strange. He never talked unless it was something important. To think that he would make a comment that was completely unnecessary was somewhat unnerving to the others. Leon just went back to being silent. After a few moments of silence, Sora and Kairi returned from their… whatever they were doing.

"Success.", was all Kairi needed to say.

Simba and Sora nodded.

The other three just looked at them before following Sora and Kairi as they left for the gummi ship.

"Still no heartless in Halloween Town. Well then, to… What?!"

Sora sounded concerned. "What is it?"

"There is a shit load of heartless heading to Halloween Town. We have to go, now!"

"Right."

They wasted absolutely no time in getting into the ship, and within minutes, they were at their destination.

* * *

Right after the four had been left alone in the new world, they regretted their decision. A wave of panic and fear washed over, around, and through them as they immediately realized that anything that happened to the world was their responsibility.

They briefly wondered if Kairi and Sora always felt like they did at the moment. They always seemed calm, but they had to be feeling the pressure, especially when it was just the two of them.

Roxas came to a strange thought and unconsciously voiced them aloud.

"I wonder how Sora and Kairi felt when they failed in saving our world from the heartless."

Everyone froze. They had never thought about what was going through the two heroes' heads at that time. Perhaps they did feel like they failed. Like they had indirectly caused the pain of the people of Twilight Town who were devoured by the heartless.

Maybe it had made Sora and Kairi suffer just as much as those who knew the people did, or maybe even more. Why didn't they ever think about it before? Oh well… the damage was done.

Axel suddenly grabbed Roxas by the arm and jumped into a tree with a door in the shape of a Christmas tree on it. To say Roxas was confused would be a lie. He wasn't confused, but he did want to beat Axel to a pulp. That was… until they landed in a pile of snow.

They saw a sign below that said 'Christmas Town'.

"Whoa." Roxas stared in awe at the sight before him. He'd never seen so much snow before in his life.

Axel was just frowning. He didn't like the cold, but he knew Roxas liked snow and heard Jack say that the door led to Christmas Town. There had to be snow in Christmas Town, right? So, he left with Roxas in tow.

Roxas noticed how Axel disliked the situation and offered to go back to Halloween Town, but he just stared at him before telling him to have fun for a while and they would go back later.

He was silently happy to not have to leave this Christmas Town. He had fun for a few hours until a sound made him stop. All of a sudden, he spotted hundreds of heartless surrounding Axel. He went to join his boyfriend asking where they came from.

"They just appeared out of thin air Rox. It was just like when they attacked Twilight Town."

That's when Cloud and Leon suddenly came.

"Need some help?"

The two nodded and the real fight began.

* * *

Demyx and Zexion barely noticed when Axel and Roxas disappeared. They decided they would look around this new world.

Eventually they managed to get out of the forest.

Demyx ran off in excitement through the graveyard toward what looked like the only part of the world that looked somewhat normal. Zexion just followed wondering what he saw in the hyperactive boy. They weren't together, at the moment, but Zexion did hope that they would be one day.

Of course, there were times when he wanted absolutely nothing to do with him. Although, Roxas had stayed with Axel for over three years now, so Zexion figured he'd be able to make a relationship with Demyx work. Maybe.

"Are you coming Zex?"

He merely nodded and quickened his pace until he was right next to his friend.

For about two and a half hours, the two looked around at all the strange parts of the unfamiliar world. When they entered a fenced off area with a 'curly' hill in it, they stared at it strangely. When they tried to walk on it, the part of the hill which was previously curled inward, unraveled to the ground.

They were about to walk down the narrow path when a huge amount of heartless appeared. They prepared for battle, but they subconsciously knew they had no chance against so many.

"Giving up so soon?"

The two were both shocked and relieved to see Kairi, Sora, and Riku at the base of the hill.

The five fought ruthlessly against the heartless and eventually destroyed them all.

After they were finished, they turned around to see their other four friends approaching looking worn out, but they had obviously defeated all the heartless or else Axel wouldn't be smirking.

"I see you guys didn't have any trouble at all with them." Roxas commented bluntly. He was exhausted from the fight and his health was low, whereas the other group looked as though they never even fought.

"It's called practice." Kairi was obviously just trying to make them angry. "Just kidding. It was a bit difficult, but Sora and I have our own ways of doing things without wasting too much energy. These attacks also leave fewer openings for the enemy to attack. It took us a lot of self-training to develop these techniques. We've worked hard to get where we are today."

"Whatever. What now?"

Sora grinned widely. "Now, we go to Atlantica."

Kairi smirked. Judging from what Cloud, Leon, and Riku turned into in the Pride Lands, she was sure to get a kick out of seeing them in Atlantica. Also, she wondered how they would feel about singing and dancing.

She chuckled at the thought and everyone else, except Sora, who also laughed, flinched.

They knew they wouldn't like Atlantica.


	4. Music and Memories

**Chapter 4: Music and Memories**

When the nine friends landed in Atlantica, it was similar to the 'Pride Lands incident'.

Sora and Kairi had both turned into mer-people along with Roxas and Riku who were both relieved to see that they hadn't turned out like the other five in their group.

Cloud ended up as something resembling a giant goldfish carrying his giant sword with his fin. Leon was a brown dolphin. Demyx was a 'furry' swordfish (wouldn't that be interesting). Zexion was a shark with sparkling silver skin on his back and black on his stomach. Axel was a bright red jellyfish.

Once again, hysterical laughter broke out from the four mer-people.

The other five reacted the same way, by giving the four death glares that could kill someone, if they didn't notice what the death glares were coming from that is.

Sora and Kairi helped them learn to swim which was also quite a sight to be seen. Then, another mermaid came up, and Sora and Kairi greeted her as Ariel. The young mermaid asked them to participate in a musical.

Six of the other seven gave the three death glares, but it didn't stop Sora and Kairi from accepting the offer for them. They really regretted joining the two at that moment.

"I am not dancing."

"There's no way in hell we're going to be in the musical."

"Hn."

"Count me out."

"…" (death glare)

"Oh, I love musicals!" (Guess who that is.)

"Whatever."

Kairi looked around. "That's three 'no's, one silent, two 'indecisive's, and three 'yes's. Therefore… we're going to be in the musical."

Sora cheered along with Demyx. Kairi smirked. Zexion laughed at Demyx and the death glares the other five were sending. So, technically, the 'no's should have won, but Kairi had taken the silent and indecisives as 'yes's (on purpose of course).

"Why are we even here if there aren't any heartless?"  
"There are never heartless here, so we might as well take a break while we can."

Kairi obviously just wanted to laugh at them singing and dancing in the musical. Riku briefly compared her to Larxene, but then decided to never think about that again. He didn't need another Larxene haunting his dreams.

After rehearsal, everyone except Kairi, Sora, and Demyx looked like they wanted to kill someone (guess who). Riku then remembered that he never did find out anything about his new friends' pasts. He decided to ask them later, or at least ask Sora. He knew he wouldn't be able to get anything out of Kairi until she decided to tell him, so Sora was his best shot.

So, that night, Riku went into Sora's temporary room to talk to him. Sora recognized him immediately and turned to face him.

"What's up, Riku?"

"I was just wondering what happened to you and Kairi before you met us, and before your world was destroyed."

Sora stared in silence for a long time before… "When I was a kid, I grew up on a small island where kids would always come to play. My parents were in charge of the island, so I really had no choice in the matter."

"What about Kairi?"

"She lived on the main island, so I didn't meet her until she came to the island with her friends to visit when we were fourteen."

"What happened to her on the main island?"

"You'd have to ask her that. If I tell you, she'll take it out on me."

"Oh, then what happened after you met?"

"I happened to recognize one of her friends from when he had visited a few years ago. His name was Tidus. He could be strange at times, but I wasn't bothered by it. I befriended her through him. She was anti-social when I first met her, but she got better. She still only really opened up to two people, Tidus and me. I didn't find out why until a few months later."

"Let me guess, I'd have to ask her myself?"

"Yeah, sorry. Anyway, when we were fifteen, we started to get into sword fighting. Kairi was really talented with double swords. The ones we used back then were wood though, since real ones were too dangerous. One day, the two of us were fighting, her with double swords and me with one, when they transformed. They became the weapons we have today."

"So she discovered hers on accident as well?"

"Yeah. It happened to work that way for all of us. It's like destiny."

"I suppose so."

"How else would you explain how I just happened to save two keyblade wielders out of an entire world of people?"

"True. Anyway, back to the story."

"Well, the next day, the heartless attacked. Kairi and I hid in a cave after we began to have trouble fighting them off. We hadn't trained much with our new weapons. We happened to find a back door and ended up in Traverse Town. It is a place where people who lost their worlds go, so we were welcomed. While we were there, we self trained for a year before we decided that we had been given those weapons for a reason, especially since we had heard rumors about the keyblade's history. That's when we asked our friend Cid for a gummi ship. He was good with things like that. We managed to get one, and then we traveled through all the worlds, some more than once, and eventually found your world. You know what happened after that."

"Yeah. I'm guessing Kairi is the more troubled of you two?"

"Well, yes, and no. She would have been if she hadn't stopped caring about what happened to her and those around her other than her close friends."

"Family?"

"She lost them long before I met her."

"You said you and Tidus were her only close friends."

"Exactly. She learned to not get her hopes up. It would just make her feel worse."

"Sometimes she spaces out, why?"

"My guess would be flashbacks, although I can't always be sure."

"Was that what happened when she fell behind when we first went to Radiant Gardens?"

"…yes."

"What kind of flashbacks?"

"A lot happened in that world. It doesn't matter."

Riku wasn't so sure about the fact that it supposedly "didn't matter", but he knew Kairi would be the only one who could answer the rest of his questions. Maybe one day, if they ever became close friends like her and Sora, she'd tell him. For now though, he'd just wait.

The next day, they went to rehearsals again. The group that was against it gave up resisting. It would just get them into trouble with Kairi. They didn't want to make her angry, so they participated. They weren't happy though.

Kairi kept looking at Sora angrily. _"I guess she found out what he told me last night." _Riku thought.

Fortunately for Riku, Sora was the one who had attracted her anger instead of him.

The crab in charge of the musical, Sebastian, was yelling at Axel for messing up his lines.

"You're ruining my musical. I want you out. Now!"

"Gladly."

"Oh no you don't!"

Exactly, there was absolutely no way Kairi would let him drop out. She and Sora were actually pretty good. Demyx was also talented in this particular area as well as, surprisingly, Cloud the giant goldfish. Who knew he could sing?

Riku was also surprised by the fact that Leon was a good dancer, even as a dolphin. Roxas also had a decent voice and was a pretty good dancer. Axel would be good too, that is, if he could remember the lines. He himself wasn't a very good dancer, his voice wasn't exactly horrible, and he didn't have a memorization problem like Axel. The only one who was really bad, was Zexion.

He tried, he really did, but he just wasn't good at it. Unlike Demyx, he was not that good with music, his voice sounded like a dying cat, he danced like an elephant, even as a shark, and he also couldn't remember his lines, earning a serious scolding from Sebastian. He was, therefore, given the simple task of using his illusions to make Sebastian's "perfect stage".

Fortunately for everyone except Sora, Kairi, and Demyx, Kairi suddenly sensed a large amount of heartless heading towards a world called Neverland.

They were off the hook for now. Hopefully Neverland wouldn't be as bad as Atlantica.

When they arrived in Neverland, they met with a boy named Peter Pan. He had a fairy which, after a little advice from Sora, Kairi, and Peter, helped them fly.

Riku loved flying. He decided he liked this world the best so far.

His joy was short lived before they began to fight over ten thousand heartless at the top of a clock tower called Big Ben. Why name a clock tower?

They won eventually, but this time, even Sora and Kairi were a little worn out. They still had no injuries though. The rest would have been dead if they didn't have a lot of potions on them and hadn't known some simple magic to cast Cure.

Peter Pan thanked them before flying off. Riku was sad to leave the world, but he had no say in the matter. Kairi said they were going to Traverse Town next.

Upon arrival, the nine were told that everyone in this world had lost their worlds to the heartless. Well, they all fit in great, except for Cloud and Leon.

As they walked through the streets of Traverse Town, much to the surprise of the seven foreigners, everyone ignored them. Usually there was someone who would recognize Sora and Kairi and welcome them to the world. This time, it was like they weren't even there.

"Sora, Kairi, does nobody here know you or…"

"Sora and I are usually greeted wherever we go because we know where to land to find people we know, but we are only friends with one person in this world and Cid tends to be found all over the place. There is no way to be sure where he is, but we know he's in this world."

"Why are we here? There aren't any heartless so far. Is this going to be like Halloween Town?" Axel was going to be very angry if they got split up again and he had to do something dangerous with low odds like when he and Roxas were up against hundreds of heartless.

"No, there are never any heartless around here. We just need to see Cid and ask him some questions about the gummi ship."

As they walked on, they saw many people, but Sora and Kairi never pointed out anyone named Cid.

"Kairi, where do you think he is?"

"There's only one place he could be, Sora."

"The sewers?"

"Exactly."

Everyone cringed. They were not looking forward to walking in the sewers. More than half of them would have gladly gone back to Atlantica if it meant they could get out of the adventure.

"Come on guys, it's just a little slightly unsanitary water and trash. It's no big deal. Man, you're a bunch of girls."

"You would know, Kairi." Axel was excited. He might just be able to win this one.

"Well, Axel. If you're so tough, why don't you go first."

"Everyone knows it's ladies first, Kairi.'

"Maybe you're right, after all, it just wouldn't do if there were nobodies down there. You might just faint."

Roxas twitched. "Well, crap. Kairi, why must you make him angry?"

At that moment Axel took out his chakrams and swung them around wildly, leaving behind trails of fire and heat. Kairi sent a wall of water at the raging red-head, literally washing him away into the sewer.

"Shall we follow him?"

Nobody had the nerve to refuse since Kairi had obviously also been slightly enraged even if she didn't show it.

They all walked into the sewer to find Axel being pinned to a wall by a tall blond man.

"There you are Cid. We had a feeling you'd be here. Now, as much as I would like to watch you beat Axel to a pulp, I must advise you to release him because he's our friend and we need him to be able to fight when we go to the next world."

"Axel huh? I suppose I can let him off the hook since he's with you, but if he crosses me one more time, he's dead."

"Perfect. He can be annoying and needs to learn his place, but we really do need him alive."

Cid and Kairi both smirked. Riku assumed they were probably thinking of ways they could torture Axel later. She was really seeming more and more like Larxene everyday. It was getting scary.

Sora was getting worried. Kairi had always been slightly sadistic, but she was even more so now. _"I hope she isn't falling into darkness again. This time, she might not overcome it."_

Leon had similar worries. He knew Kairi could be mean and sadistic, but she was making it seem almost… funny. She never looked for a reason to torture someone, but she did seize the opportunity. It was sort of like last time she began to give in to the darkness. He knew Sora couldn't just keep saving her. By the looks of it, she was sinking fast.

Everyone else was oblivious. Even Cloud who had been around when Kairi had troubles couldn't pick up the subtle hints that showed that she was once again being devoured by her past.

Cid gave Sora something. Sora examined it before asking, "Where will it take us?"

"Not sure, but it's filled to the brim with heartless. You should be able to take care of it since you have more people with you now."

"Thanks, Cid. We'll get rid of them."

"Good luck."

The nine left and entered the gummi ship.

Upon landing at their destination, Kairi collapsed at the sight of what laid before them.

"End of the World. This is where all worlds devoured by the heartless go. At least, that's what he told me."

"Who?"

Everyone looked on curiously. If Sora didn't even know, it must be big.

"Xehanort."

* * *

**Ok, so for once I'm going to actually say something. Yes, I know this story is getting worse and worse as it goes on and I hate the fact that I tend to do that with my stories. I'm trying though.**

**I did pick two major villains for this fanfiction, so it's nowhere near over, believe me.**

**Anyway, so Kairi has some issues with giving into the darkness. I know, that part of the plot is crap and I hate it, but it needs to be that way for a certain part of the plot that will take place later in the story. Bear with it for now. Thank you people who actually check to see if this has been updated frequently enough to keep up with my pace.**

**Yay fast writing! Other than that, I have nothing to say other than the fact that the only reason it took so long to update, even though it's not that long compared to some other fanfictions I've read, is that I didn't write for a few days while I was at a friend's house.**

**Have fun, and keep reading if you like it. I don't plan on giving up on this story. I just hope it ends up the way I want it to. Many times I get off track from the main focus, but I'm also trying to do that less (although the results haven't really shown yet). **

**Bye!**

* * *


	5. The Enemy and the Loss

**Chapter Five: The Enemy and the Loss**

"Who the hell is Xehanort and how do you know him?!"

To say everyone was confused would be a major understatement, but Axel was the first to actually express it.

"Well, Kairi… you gonna tell us or not?"

"When the heartless invaded Destiny Islands, I was alone at fist. I was searching for Sora when I saw a portal of sorts. Through it, I saw this world. A strange man came up to me and called it 'End of the World'. He told me his name was Xehanort and asked me if I would join him, and that's when you finally found me. He disappeared before you could see him, so don't feel like you missed something, Sora. I now believe that he was the one who sent them to destroy our world and the others, but there may be others after us as well. From what I can tell, this is a world of heartless. Therefore, someone else must be controlling the nobodies."

"So there are at least two people controlling heartless and nobodies, and both (all) want us dead?" Sora hung his head in defeat. "Could things get any worse?"

"Yes, things can get much worse. It could be just the two of us again, or just one of us fighting against everything. At any time, the situation could entirely change, and we can't do anything to stop that. We just have to let our hearts lead us to where we must go and trust our instincts. We'll find a way to end this, eventually. In the meantime, we need to get rid of Xehanort and any other enemies we cross in this world. Then we can worry about other enemies."

"As always, you're right. Well then, what are we waiting for?! Let's go find Xehanort!"

Everyone except Cloud, Leon, Kairi, and Zexion cheered in agreement.

As they walked through the world, heartless would attack basically every few steps, at least twenty at a time. Fortunately for the group, they soon came upon an island. Sora and Kairi were shocked by the sight.

"Sora, this…"

"Yeah… Destiny Islands. It's been a while, hasn't it Kairi?"

Kairi just nodded. They walked around for a while. The rest of their group followed them looking around at the world their friends used to live in trying to understand more about the two people who had changed their lives.

When they entered a cave, Riku assumed it was the cave the two had hid in when the heartless attacked.

"I never thought we'd end up here again. Do you think Xehanort is somewhere around here? Kairi?"

All was silent, and it didn't take long for Sora to catch on. He turned around to face a man with long silver hair.

Riku noticed that he looked a lot like Xemnas, but Xemnas was a heartless now so it couldn't be him.

Demyx merely saw the resemblance and stared at the man.

"Is that you, Xemnas?"

"No. I am Xehanort. Xemnas was my son."

Everyone from Twilight Town gasped. They couldn't believe that the father of one of their friends was the one controlling the heartless. There was also the fact that he had supposedly died years ago.

Riku then realized that the time he supposedly died was just two years before Destiny Islands had been attacked. What if he had become a heartless instead of dying? It was possible.

"Are you a heartless?"

"Congratulations, Riku. You catch on quickly, although Kairi was just as quick if not quicker, and she didn't even have my background information to go on. Still, you were one of the only two who managed to figure it out."

Kairi hung her head and sighed. Riku noticed that she seemed, sad. She had also returned to sitting on the ground.

Sora didn't seem to notice though as he began to fight the man along with the other six in the group.

Riku walked over and whispered in her ear, "Kairi? What are you doing? We need your help."

That got her attention. She suddenly stood up, slowly, and walked over to the battle with determination in her eyes. Riku still noticed that she seemed unbalanced but joined the battle anyway.

A few minutes later, Kairi had Xehanort pinned to the ground. He was low on health and energy. Kairi smirked, but it quickly fell when Xehanort gave her a smirk of his own.

"You're through." Xehanort had barely whispered it, but Riku heard.

Before anyone could do anything, Kairi suddenly stood up and backed away from the man with a regretful look. She knelt down, and she suddenly turned into a heartless.

She was one everyone recognized as a Shaman. It made sense since they were found in the Pride Lands, her favorite world, and were on a pretty high level of strength.

Although they couldn't see it, behind a rock a few meters away, a nobody with short blonde hair wearing a white dress was on the ground. She woke up to see eight sad teenage boys around a shaman along with a man with silver hair on the ground, near death.

When she looked at one of the faces, it hit her. She remembered what had happened, and she realized the heartless they were staring at was herself and that she was a nobody.

The nobody silently slipped into the realm of darkness and left her friends behind to grieve their loss.

Meanwhile, Xehanort chuckled softly.

"She has slowly been giving in to the darkness. She finally became a heartless. Judging by the information I have on her, her nobody is probably around here somewhere."

The dying man paused for a moment.

"Well, it seems someone just entered the realm of darkness. That's something nobodies can do you know. Perhaps it was your friend."

Nobody paid attention to the man. They just stared at the heartless which stared back. Sora suddenly took out one of his keyblades and prepared to strike it.

Suddenly, Riku grabbed his wrist.

"What are you doing Sora?"

"This is a heartless. It's not Kairi. She once said that it may be possible to return the heart to it's owner but that the only way to do so would be to kill their heartless and take the nobody to their heart, wherever hearts go after the heartless are killed."

Riku let go in understanding. It was obviously the only chance they had to get Kairi back.

Sora destroyed the heartless with one swing of his keyblade before he finished off Xehanort.

As they were leaving, they saw a door. It was closed and their was someone in front of it. Sora locked it with his keyblade causing the mouse-like person to turn towards them.

"Well hello there." He spoke with a cheery voice which just made the group want to strangle him. "I'm Mickey Mouse. It's nice to finally meet the Keyblade Master. How are you Sora?'

"Let's see… my friend just turned into a heartless, and her nobody ran away. I just killed a heartless named Xehanort who has been hunting the two of us down for a long time, and I am now talking to a mouse. What do you think?"

"Sorry about your friend. I want you guys to see something. You have a gummi ship right? This will get us there."

The mouse threw something similar to what they had gotten from Cid and Sora caught it before walking towards the ship. Everyone followed.

The ride on the gummi ship made everyone feel even worse than usual. They supposed the fact that they had just lost their friend had something to do with it.

Even Axel seemed to be mourning the loss of the strange, sadistic girl.

When they arrived at the world, they saw a huge castle. Under different circumstances, they supposed it would seem nice.

A duck and a dog came up to them.

"Your Majesty! Where were you? Minnie was worried!"

They assumed this was the king they had herd of from, coincidently, the one person nobody wanted to think about right now. It didn't help at all.

"I went to find the Keyblade Master, but he apparently found me."

He pointed to Sora before he sighed.

"Donald, could you show them where they can stay for now?"

"Of course your majesty. We only have four rooms though, so they'll have to share."

Riku decided to speak. "That's fine. We don't mind."

The duck, Donald, led them through a maze of hallways before reaching a hallway with four doors.

"Take whichever rooms you want. Make yourselves at home."

Axel and Roxas took the room across the hall to the left. Zexion and Demyx went across the hall to their right. Leon and Cloud went to the room on the end of the hall to their left leaving Sora and Riku to take the one at the end of the hall to their right.

The rooms changed colors to suit the mood of those within them. Each room was a shade of bluish-gray. All eight immediately went to sleep on the beds set out in their rooms (each room had two beds).

In the morning, all except for Sora seemed a little better. They were now talking over breakfast. Sora just stared at his food, and Riku just watched Sora and tried to coax him into speaking. Nothing worked though.

Riku wanted to help his friend, but he wasn't sure how. The loss of Kairi wasn't really that major to the other seven since they hadn't known her very long or very well. They barely knew anything about her, except Leon and Cloud who knew her more than the others, but they were always just silent so there was no change except in their eyes.

Riku suddenly wished he had gotten more of a chance to learn about her. He never quite understood what she did or why, but he wanted to. More importantly though, he wanted to be able to help Sora be his old self again.

He probably wouldn't be back to normal for a while though.

A month passed and Sora was just starting to speak again. When he did though, he never really said much. Every once in a while he would make a small comment before returning to silence. Leon and Cloud had apparently gotten closer during that time and were now considered a couple. Demyx was **still **oblivious as to Zexion's feelings toward the boy, so there was no progress there.

Riku started to believe that his feelings for Sora were stronger than those for a really close friend or even a brother. Riku thought about all the relationships between his friends. _Do gay people just swarm around each other or something? This is ridiculous. I wonder if Sora is gay too. It would make sense since the rest of us are, but you can't be sure. If he isn't, then I'm screwed. Whatever. I guess I'll find out eventually._

Meanwhile, Sora was silently thinking about how he could find Kairi and get her heart back. He had heard the king talk about something called Kingdom Hearts. He could have sworn the mouse said 'When the keyblade destroys a heartless, it releases a captive heart. These hearts gather to form the heart of all worlds, Kingdom Hearts.' or something like that. If he was right, Kairi's heart was there, and Sora knew Kairi would be investigating it or finding out who was controlling the nobodies from the inside.

It was time to act. He had to stop sitting around doing nothing.

"Hello? Everyone?"

His seven friends, the king, Donald, and Goofy stared at him.

"We defeated Xehanort, so the heartless will be back to acting as mindless heart collectors. We now have to focus on the nobodies and whoever is controlling them. That means we need to continue searching for their leader. When we find them, we'll find Kairi's nobody as I'm sure she'll be gathering information for us by following them."

"If she's not being controlled." Roxas mentally slapped himself.

"Kairi wouldn't let anyone control her. I'm sure of it. You don't need to worry about that.'

Everyone nodded.

Surprisingly to everyone, Axel got his usual excitement back first.

"What are we waiting for then? Let's go! If Kairi is helping from the inside she'll probably leave clues for us, right?"

Sora smiled. "Yes, she will. Let's go. Everyone?"

Cloud and Leon nodded while Riku and the others shouted yes with new found motivation and energy which had been passed onto them from Axel's declaration.

"Since everyone agrees, we should be leaving now. Bye King Mickey. Thank you for letting us stay here."

"It's no problem. Come back anytime."

Sora nodded before walking out of the castle followed by his friends.

They all knew they had a long journey ahead of them.

* * *

At the same time, a girl with blonde hair looked out of a window to see trees and nobodies surrounding the mansion she was staying in. She looked around the room she was in and only saw white walls, white chairs, a white table, and some pictures taped to the walls around her.

A man with long silver hair which reminded her way too much of a certain heartless entered the room.

"How's the plan coming, Namine?"

"They've just left the castle. They're coming to find us."

"Us?"

"You and me."

"Why are they looking for you?"

"They're my friends."

"You're a nobody. You don't have friends. How can someone without a heart have friends?"

"I suppose they see me as the same person I was before I was devoured by darkness."

"How naïve."

"Yes, quite." _But it's true either way. They'll find me, and I'll get my heart back. Then we'll be together again. You'll see, Xemnas._


	6. The Nobodies and Their Leader

**Chapter 6: The Nobodies and Their Leader**

Sora flew the gummi ship to the world, Land of Dragons, and led his friends through the world.

Along the way, they saw a woman named Mulan with a small dragon, Mushu, who said the heartless stopped coming a few weeks ago.

"They're gone?"

"First they stopped coming. After that, the army and I destroyed all the ones that were still here."

"You haven't seen any other creatures around recently?"

"Like what?"

"There are others somewhat like heartless called nobodies. We're searching for them."

"There has been no sign of anything other than people here. I'm sorry I couldn't help."

"At least we don't have to get rid of heartless in this world. Thank you."

The eight teenagers left the world looking lost. They had no idea where the leader of the nobodies was or where any nobodies were for that matter.

They didn't know where to go.

When they got on the gummi ship, Sora noticed that the autopilot was on and was programmed to take them to Beast's Castle.

"I didn't turn on the autopilot."

Riku looked at the screen. "Maybe someone is telling us where to go."

"… or it could be a trap."

"Either way, we don't have any idea where to go as it is. There's no point in ignoring something that tells us what path to take."

"I guess so. Besides, if it's a trap, someone had to lure us there for some reason."

"Exactly. Either, we'll find a clue there, or we'll find the enemy. Either way we get what we're searching for."

After some hesitation, Sora drove the gummi ship to Beast's Castle. He had never trusted autopilot to take him anywhere.

When they arrived, they weren't disappointed.

The moment they left the ship, many dusks swarmed them.

Axel pulled out his chakrams. "Finally, a fight."

The others took out their weapons and easily defeated the dusks, but they were surprised when a woman ran out of the castle screaming.

"I guess there are more in there." Sora sighed.

"Yeah. Well, this will be fun."

"Riku you're so weird. It won't be fun!" Demyx obviously didn't notice the sarcasm.

Zexion was the first to enter the castle, followed by Demyx, Axel, and Roxas. Sora and Riku decided to talk to the girl first.

"What's going on in there, Belle?"

"Sora, the nobodies are back in the castle. Fortunately, all the heartless were gone by the time they showed up, or we wouldn't have been able to hold out this long. Please help the beast."

"Of course we'll help."

With that, Sora and Riku joined their friends in the castle.

They fought off hundreds of nobodies on their way to the Beast's room.

When they got there, they saw the beats talking to a man in black.

"Go away Xaldin!"

"But Beast, I must take you back to Xemnas, or he'll have my head."

"Good riddance then."

The Beast lunged at the man, but he disappeared through a portal.

Riku laughed. "So Xemnas is the leader of the nobodies huh? Like father, like son I suppose."

Belle suddenly came into the room. "The nobodies are gone. They followed a man in black out of the world."

Sora ran out of the room followed by Riku.

Axel sighed. "I guess we have to follow them."

* * *

Xemnas entered a white room with pillars of varying heights lining the walls and addressed his followers sitting on their assigned pillars showing the seriousness of the situation in their eyes in anticipation for the message they would receive.

A man with long black hair and sideburns appeared on one of the platforms.

"I see you have not succeeded Xaldin. Perhaps I should have sent someone more capable for this mission. What hindered you so? This should have been a simple task. All you had to do was weaken the Beast and bring him here. Did I overestimate your abilities, or is there something I'm missing?"

"If you don't mind my intrusion, Xemnas, I would be glad to explain."

"That would be fine, Namine. Proceed."

Namine nodded. "At the point where Xaldin was supposed to, and would have, switched from trying to convince the Beast to weakening him, there were some uninvited guests."

"If these guests were assumed to be able to cause failure to the plan, I suppose they must be my old friends and your old friends. How unfortunate that they happened to come at the worst possible time."

A woman with short blond hair interrupted. "They can't be that strong. Surely Xaldin can defeat them. They're just eight teenagers after all."

"I must disagree, Larxene. Although Axel, Roxas, Zexion, Demyx, and Riku were weak when you knew them, I can assure you they are formidable opponents."

"I find that hard to believe Namine. How could you know their strength?"

"You're forgetting that I trained Axel, Zexion, and Demyx myself. They have great skills and even greater potential. Roxas and Riku were trained personally by Sora who is the Keyblade Master. The other two already had skills before Sora and I met them, and those skills only increased as they trained with us. They may be young, but they could easily take down any of us if we cross paths. We can't let our guard down."

"It's impossible for those guys to ever become that strong. Even if they had potential, they wouldn't be able to handle the training."

"Larxene, you should listen to Namine. She and them defeated my father without any trouble. You can be sure of their strength. Even if you still have doubts concerning her judgment, she is at the moment your superior. I suggest that you show your respect."

Larxene scowled but took the advice, which was more a warning then anything else, as she addressed her younger superior.

"Please accept my apologies. I was out of line and shouldn't have questioned you."

"There is no need for such things. This is merely a waste of time. We must create a new plan or… hmmm. Perhaps we won't have to give up on that plan just yet after all."

A man with blue-silver hair with an X scar on his face stared at her with curiosity as he spoke. "And why is that? How has the situation changed?"

"It seems that our enemies moved on to another world after Xaldins departure. This time, I suggest we send someone else though. I believe there's a job better suited for Xaldin at the moment. Saix, you may handle the Beast. Is that all right with you, Xemnas?"

"Of course. It's a perfect plan."

"Saix?"

"I accept. The task will be easily accomplished."

"If everyone understands what we're doing, I would like Namine and Saix to stay behind as well as Larxene. I have a special mission for you."

After the rest had left the room, Xemnas immediately began explaining.

"Larxene, I need you to talk to our old friends. Avoid confrontation at all costs as you will be defeated if you take on all of them by yourself."

After receiving a nod, Xemnas moved on to look at Saix.

"Face the Beast. Fight him immediately. Once he's weak, bring him here."

Another nod and Namine was now at the center of attention.

"Namine, I want you to prepare a greeting for our eight pursuers. I'm sure you'll think of something. I want them alive but unable to fight. Feel free to get creative."

"Seems simple enough."

Xemnas dismissed the three nobodies before returning to his pillar.

"This will get interesting."

* * *

Once they had landed on the ground, Riku, Axel, Roxas, Demyx, Zexion, Cloud, and Leon looked around, but none could find a trace of human life.

Riku walked up to Sora. "Where are we?"

"Deep Jungle."

"Are there people here?"

"A few."

"As in…"

"Three: Tarzan, who was raised by apes, Jane, and Jane's father, who is a scientist."

"…that's it?"

"Yes. There are other animals though. There are a lot of gorillas."

"Why are we here?"

"Although my senses aren't nearly as good as Kairi's, I was able to sense nobodies in this area."

"Wouldn't they go to places with more people?"

"Usually, yes. I'm not sure why they're here."

Axel sighed. "It's times like these I really wish we still had Kairi. At least she was smart. Not that you're not smart, Sora, but she's way smarter."

"It's alright, I know she's smarter than me."

Riku bowed his head. "What if Kairi has changed since she lost her heart? What would you do Sora?"

Sora immediately sent him a death glare leaving everyone shocked.

Sora never gave death glares.

"Kairi will not change. She will remember us and continue to reach out to us."

"… Sora… what if she doesn't?"

"She will. Kairi will always stay the same."

"I hate to break it to you, but it's a possibility."

Suddenly, a girl with short blonde hair in a black cloak appeared out of a portal.

"It's nice to see you again, Riku, Axel, Roxas, Demyx, and Zexion. It's been a long time since we last met."

Riku visibly twitched. "What are you doing here Larxene?"

Sora stared at the girl. "So you're the famous sadist, Larxene, I've heard so much about?"

"Yep, that's me!" She then gave a smirk before turning toward the two strangers.

"Who are you two?"

Axel walked up to her. "They're Cloud and Leon. They don't talk much, so just ignore them."

Zexion began to glare at Larxene. "Are you here because Xemnas told you to come?"

"As usual, you're quite smart. He wanted me to see how you guys were doing and give you a little hint that will take you to what you're looking for."

Sora jumped. "Is Kairi with you and Xemnas?!"

"I've never heard of the name Kairi. If you're looking for your friend who turned into a nobody, yeah she's with us. We call her Namine. She decided to abandon her true name because she felt that she couldn't accept the name until getting her heart back. I think it's stupid, but she's higher in rank than I am, so I didn't mention it."

Riku took a moment to recover from shock. "I guess even you have to show respect to your superiors."

"As much as it angers me, Xemnas would kick my ass if I disrespected his most important tool. Of course, now that I think about it, it seems like she has her own plans. Perhaps he's actually her most important tool. It wouldn't surprise me. That's why he's always keeping an eye on her. That's also why he stole her weapons and made it so she couldn't summon them. I find it funny how she is now practically defenseless and must rely on Xemnas. I must admit, she's a good actress. She shows absolutely no signs of disloyalty even though everyone suspects she's going to turn against us. She's smart. If anyone can outsmart Xemnas, it's her."

Sora chuckled. "That's definitely Kairi… sort of."

"She told me that you know where all the worlds are. The answers you seek are in Wonderland. Feel free to come search for us. We'll be waiting."

As soon as she finished speaking, Larxene retreated into the darkness.

Demyx stared at the spot for a long time. "Why would they tell us where to find them?"

Riku frowned. "It's probably a trap. I also don't think they're in Wonderland. Their true location is probably connected to that world though. Either that, or there will be another old friend of ours waiting to send us somewhere else. In that case, they could be stalling so that they can prepare for our arrival."

Sora stared out into space for a moment. "My guess would be the latter. Since they're all from Twilight Town like you, their world would probably be connected to Xemnas' castle."

Leon looked at Cloud and nodded. "Although that's a possibility, we can't be sure, so we should go to Wonderland and, worst case scenario, we have to hope Namine can get us out of whatever trap we fall into."

Everyone seemed hesitant as they reentered the gummi ship.

After all, for all they knew, they could be falling right into the enemy's trap.

* * *

Back in the pillar room, Larxene met with Xemnas and reported that the mission was a success. Afterwards, she went to speak with Namine.

When Larxene entered the white room, she saw Namine sitting at the table drawing.

"What are you drawing?" She practically sang it as her sadistic side took great pleasure in distracting the young nobody.

"I'm designing something to contain our friends. I need to make sure there are no flaws."

"You don't have to lie to me. I know you're planning something to get rid of Xemnas, and I'm all for it if you think it would work with my help."

"You shouldn't talk like that. Xemnas has cameras everywhere, and yes they have sound. If he catches you speaking against him, you'll regret it."

During the entire time Larxene was in the room, Namine hadn't taken her eyes off of her sketch pad for a moment.

"Why won't you look at me while I'm talking to you?"

"Just in case you haven't noticed, I'm busy. I don't have time for your useless distractions." _Although you may become useful in the future, I can't be caught making plans with you. Larxene, you may become a strong ally soon. I hope you have already caught onto this._

"Fine then, I'll leave, but if you ever need me, just let me know. You are my superior after all."

_I'm glad she understands. It could have become troublesome had she continued the way she was. _"I'll keep it in mind. Now leave."

"Of course, Namine. It wouldn't do to have our plans ruined because you couldn't finish those designs. If Xemnas finds out I distracted you, and it fails, he'll blame me."

"Just go."

"Right. Bye!"

Larxene slammed the door behind her as she exited the room. _Perfect._

Namine lifted her gaze to the door when it slammed. _Everything's going far too smoothly. There must be something I'm missing. Oh, well. I'll just have to wait and see what happens._

**I updated later then usual, I think. Oh, well. I hope you like it so far. Have fun!**


	7. Plans and Betrayal

**Chapter Seven: Plans and Betrayal**

Sora jumped out of the ship when he and his friends arrived at Wonderland. They all shrunk and went through the hole in the wall.

After searching throughout the entire world five times, Demyx and Axel wanted to just give up and go somewhere else.

That was when a portal opened. A man with an eye patch and a scar on his face was on the other side.

Riku growled. "So you're in on this too, huh Xigbar?"

"Of course I am. Xemnas wouldn't leave me out of the loop. Come on, it's time to go. Namine is waiting for you."

Sora gasped and his eyes widened. Riku just growled again.

"He's making her set a trap for us?"

"I'm glad you catch on fast. I assure you though, Namine was more than willing to do so. She spent quite a bit of time designing the trap, and I would hate to see all that hard work go to waste."

Sora finally found his voice again. "If she designed the trap, we have nothing to worry about. She'll have a plan. I know it."

Zexion sighed. "You can't always have so much faith in her. We haven't seen what she turned into after she lost her heart. For all we know, she actually wants to help Xemnas and get rid of us."

Sora was about to protest when Xigbar interrupted.

"You can never be too careful. Namine constantly reminds us that the eight of you are unpredictable since you have so many conflicting personalities and thought processes. That may just lead to your downfall or help you defeat Xemnas. It all depends on which opinions you choose to follow in which situations. If Xemnas is controlling Namine, you should probably attack me. If Namine is controlling Xemnas, you should follow me. Either way, it will eventually end with meeting with us, so you might as well just come with me."

Riku looked at Sora who nodded.

Everyone else just took a hesitant step forward before following Xigbar through the portal. Despite being the firsts at the portal, Riku and Sora went last.

"Sora, will you be able to handle seeing what Kairi has become?"

"Of course."

"Let's go then."

"Is the trap ready, Namine?"

"Yes. It won't fail. You don't have to be so worried about my part of the plan. You should be making sure the others follow through with their jobs. You must focus on more than one of your followers if you want to be a good leader, Xemnas."

"In any other case, that would be true, but you are the only one I must watch. You are now in charge of the rest. I will control you, and you will control them so that my will can be brought upon the worlds."

"If you say so. I will not have you keeping too much control over me though."

"And how will you accomplish that? You can't fight against me."

"Did you really think I would make a trap for my friends?"

"What are you…"

At that moment, a cage came around Xemnas. A force field then lined the cage.

"I see… it was all a trap for me. You did well… Namine. I wish I could have bent you to my will, but I suppose that wasn't meant to be. Enjoy your freedom."

Namine lifted her hands and found she was able to summon her swords.

"I'm glad my plan worked. I was afraid that even if I captured you, I wouldn't be able to summon my weapons. Things are going very well for me. I only wish I knew what misfortune shall block my path."

"Your guess is as good as mine. I can't see the future either."

"I don't believe I asked you."

At that moment, Xigbar walked into the room through a portal.

"What is this? I see you have made your move Namine. What is your plan now?"

Axel was the first to walk into the room.

"So you're Namine? You don't look anything like Kairi."

"Exactly. Axel, you are still annoying and clueless. If I still had a heart I would be angry."

Roxas then entered followed by Demyx, Zexion, Cloud and Leon.

"How have you been? Have you been training at all since I left?"

Sora and Riku finally entered the room.

Sora looked around.

"Who are you, and why is Xemnas in a cage?"

"I am Namine, and I put Xemnas in the cage."

"Kairi?"

"I used to be. It is not yet time for me to return to my old life and resume my old name. For now, we shall continue with the plan I started. We shall find a way to return hearts to nobodies, and then, we shall finally go home. After we defeated Xehanort, you locked that door allowing all the worlds that were devoured by darkness to return, so all our homes are back. Of course, you don't have to go back to where you came from if you don't want to. Xigbar, will you be joining us, or do we have to kill you?"

"I'll stick with you guys for now. After all, the original plan was for us to get our hearts back before Xemnas started getting power hungry."

"That's good. I also know Larxene will be more than happy to join us. I'm not sure about the others. Xigbar, gather everyone in the pillar room. I want to talk to my old friends for a while."

"Of course. Have fun."

Xigbar then disappeared into a portal.

"It's good to see you all again. It's been a while."

Once all were gathered in the pillar room, Xigbar began to explain how Namine had captured Xemnas and reunited with her friends.

"She now wonders if any of us would like to continue to follow her in her quest to restore hearts to the nobodies."

A man with blonde hair which had grown to below his shoulders laughed.

"To think Xemnas would be trapped by Namine. We know she's smart and resourceful. She is also very strong in battles. With all of us, her, and her friends, getting our hearts back should be all too easy. I'm in."

Saix turned to the man. "You are forgetting that she betrayed Xemnas. She could easily do the same to us, Vexen."

Larxene chuckled. "But she won't. She is not just looking for our hearts. She's looking for her own, which is why she wants us to help her. We have a common goal. Xemnas had a different goal. We can trust her for as long as we share that goal."

A man with spiky pink hair stared at Larxene with amusement. "It would seem that you have been thinking about this a lot."

"It's simple, Marluxia. I figured that she would probably betray Xemnas soon, so I looked at my options thoroughly. My best option is to help Namine until we find our hearts. Then we can all go our separate ways. We'd never be able to accomplish that goal without her mind and Sora's heart anyway. We need both of them, so we should join forces with them when we have the chance."

Marluxia nodded. A man with orange hair grunted.

"I can't believe we're going to take orders from a seventeen year old girl. Unfortunately, like Larxene said, it's the best option we have."

Larxene snickered. "Good job Lexaeus. Have a cookie." She then threw a cookie into his lap causing the man to growl before deciding to eat it anyway.

A man with blonde hair and a beard smirked. "It sounds interesting. I'll join as well."

Xigbar laughed. "So, even you are agreeing Luxord. I guess we're all going to follow Namine then. This will be interesting."

Riku looked at the blonde haired girl in the white dress for a long time.

"Namine, who else was working with Xemnas?"

"There's me, Larxene, Marluxia, Vexen, Xigbar, Xaldin, Luxord, Lexaeus, and Saix. I'm sure you know them all."

"Yes. They're all people who were friends with Axel, Roxas, Zexion, Demyx, and me."

"I figured as much. They're quite interesting. I also did notice why you compared me to Larxene a few times."

Roxas twitched. "Great, now we have to deal with two sadists. How will we ever survive?"

Axel and Zexion laughed while Demyx cringed.

Sora bowed his head. "Namine… do you really think we can return hearts to the nobodies, including yourself?"

"Of course. We'll find a way. Follow me."

Namine opened a portal which all nine walked through. They came to a room with ten pillars on the walls. Eight of the ten had nobodies sitting on them. They all assumed the other two were for Xemnas and Namine.

Namine drew something on the sketch pad she was still holding, and seven more pillars lined the walls. It was only then that everyone noticed all the pillars had names on them.

Larxene laughed. "So you decided to label the pillars this time Namine. Now we have seventeen members. Nine nobodies and eight others. How interesting. Only you could pull together such a strange group Namine."

"It helped that twelve of you were already friends before you became nobodies."

"True."

Everyone went to their labeled pillars, and the introductions began.

"Cloud, from Radiant Gardens."

"Leon, also from Radiant Gardens."

"Demyx, from Twilight Town."

"Zexion. Twilight Town."

"Axel from twilight Town. Got it memorized?"

"Roxas. Twilight Town."

"Riku from Twilight Town."

"Sora from Destiny Islands."

"Larxene from Twilight Town."

"Saix from Twilight Town."

"Xaldin from Twilight Town."

"Xigbar. Do I even have to say it?"

"Vexen from Twilight Town, and you really should have."

"Marluxia from Twilight Town. Don't make fun of my hair."

"Luxord from Twilight Town."

"Lexaeus from Twilight Town."

"Namine from End of the World. Formerly Kairi from Destiny Islands. We are now in The World that Never Was. This will be our home for however long it takes to accomplish our goal, so make yourselves comfortable."

Everyone nodded before all the nobodies returned to their rooms through portals leaving Namine to show the rest where their rooms were.

"There are many nobodies in this castle, but they won't attack you. They'll recognize you as friends of ours, so if you don't provoke them, you have nothing to worry about. Just ignore them and everything will be fine. Everyone gathers twice a day for training. Basically, the training is one on one battles. I've never participated in them before since Xemnas wouldn't let me have my weapons, but I've watched them. Take the matches seriously because your opponents will. I'll let you know when the training starts the first few times. You'll get used to it fast. I'll occasionally send certain individuals and groups on missions to investigate leads on how to accomplish our goal, so always be prepared. Now, I'll show you to your rooms. The kitchen is on the bottom floor along with the 'living room'. You can use either whenever you want. If you need me, I'll be in a room on the top floor. That is all."

Namine silently showed each of her friends their individual rooms.

Sora just grinned the entire way to his room, Riku was frowning in thought, and the rest were just lost in their own minds trying to figure out just what had happened.

Later that night, after training, Riku had gotten over the shock of what had happened and decided to finally find out more about the secretive sadist.

Namine heard someone knock on her door. "You may come in, Riku."

"How did you know it was me?"

"The same way I can sense nobodies and heartless."

"How do you do that? You never said."

"You never asked. I was born with the ability to sense spirits. You need a spirit in order to exist, so heartless and nobodies also have spirits. They're just a little different from normal ones. You can also tell people apart by the structure of their spirits. It's simple really."

"I've never heard someone talk about spirits. Everyone always talks about hearts."

"That's because hearts are the major issue at the moment. No strange beings strongly associated with the spirit have been found so far. That is why everyone just ignores their importance. If it's not a problem, no one really cares. We all have more important things to worry about. I just happened to be born with the ability, so I researched it. Apparently, people have tried to figure out the secrets which lie in spirits before like Ansem did with hearts. I managed to dig up some of that research, and it allowed me to figure out how to use my abilities the best I could."

"Okay then. Why is it that you look so different as a nobody while everyone else looks pretty much the same?"

"I wasn't quite satisfied with just giving up my name, so I changed my appearance. I even decided to wear a dress, and I've never liked dresses. They're uncomfortable and hard to move in. I'd prefer jeans and a t-shirt any day."

"You're strange."

"And you're not? You randomly come in here and start interrogating me, and you say I'm strange?"

"I never did find out about your past, so I came here to ask about it. When I got here I also realized there were other bits of information you never mentioned, so I figured I'd ask those questions as well while I had the chance."

"Fine. It's only logical to desire information on my past. Curiosity is a tricky thing, and no one can completely get rid of it. I'll tell you about my past, but not now. Go to the basement after the first training session tomorrow morning. I'll tell you then."

"That will work. Don't back out."

"Why would I do that?"

"To keep your little secrets."

"Well, you know there must have been something to trigger my decent into darkness, and it's not like you're just going to walk away if I refuse. You'll just keep asking me until I give in, so we might as well get it over with."

"Even without a heart you're annoying and sadistic. That's just wonderful."

Namine laughed. "My personality is engraved within my spirit. Taking away my heart will not change me so much."

"I see. I'll talk to you tomorrow then."

"Alright, as long as you know that you're digging your own grave."

Riku's left eye twitched. "…"

"Just kidding. Can't you take a joke? My life's not that horrible."

"Right. Bye."

"Bye."

Riku ran out of the room as fast as he could and slammed the door behind him.

"Sometimes… she scares me."

Riku then returned to his room wondering just what he would find out the next morning.

"Should I tell Sora? Nah… it doesn't really matter. I'll tell him after I talk to her. What's the worst thing that could happen?"

**Okay, now just to let you know, not much will be happening in the next chapter.**

**Basically, Kairi's past will be revealed, and everyone starts to get used to life in the castle. I will probably finally bring in the main pairing. Yeah, I know, it's strange that I'm already seven chapters into the story and I've barely even suggested the possibility of Riku and Sora getting together except for that one time in chapter 5. I figure it's time to focus more on the social stuff, so not much will happen, but I'm not very good at writing about social interactions (I really need to get a life) so it will probably take longer than usual to write it. **

**Yay gay pairings! Have fun!**


	8. Past, Present, and Future

**Chapter Eight: Past, Present, and Future**

After morning training, Riku went to the basement of the castle, which he never knew existed before, to find a computer in a room with blue walls almost completely covered with photos and hand drawn portraits.

A voice came seemingly out of nowhere.

"This is where Xemnas use to make plans. This computer holds everything he knew that could possibly be related to him, heartless, nobodies, etcetera. It also contains the knowledge I added pertaining to the experiments done involving spirits. This was basically the control center for Xemnas. I was always standing in the background of course. That has nothing to do with why we're here though."

"Why are we here?"

"This is the only room in the castle that had its cameras removed. Even I don't know the locations of all the cameras. Xemnas removed the cameras here a while back because he didn't want his followers, including me, to know what he was up to when we weren't able to see him. I'd prefer to keep my past a secret from most people/nobodies. Do not tell anyone else what you hear in this room. You can tell Sora that I told you about my past, but don't discuss it with him. There's always a chance that someone can watch and listen to the recordings and find out anything anyone says and does. Do you understand?"

"Yes."

"Then I shall continue. Where do you want me to start?"

"The beginning. Before you met Sora, and before you lost your family."

"So Sora told you about that? I'll have to talk to him about that later. If you say so…"

"Please. I've been dying to hear this for quite a while. I'm highly intrigued by your secrets."

"Maybe I'll make you suffer a little longer then…"

"No, tell me now."

"Fine. I was born on the main island of Destiny Islands. I grew up with my father since, when I was six, my mother died trying to give birth to the baby who would have been my younger sister had my mother not come down with an illness during pregnancy. I can't remember much of what happened before that. The memories are a bit sketchy because of my young age, but from what I can tell, my mother was a nice woman, and my father was a lot happier before she died. After her death, my father began to drink and even tried to commit suicide at least twice. I basically raised myself. When I was ten, I met Tidus because, apparently, his mother and my own used to be friends. After that, we became friends. I never really got along with others as I was independent and didn't really trust people. I never really trusted people before my mother's death either, although I'm not sure why. I just didn't. At fourteen, Tidus convinced me to go to one of the smaller islands he used to play at when he was younger. That's where I met Sora. I only became friends with him because Tidus said they were friends. Eventually, he actually grew on me, and I was almost constantly going back to the island with Tidus. Eventually we got into sword fighting, with wooden swords of course. One day, Sora and I were sparring when our wooden swords turned into the weapons we use now. The keyblade is a weapon of the heart, whereas my swords draw power from the soul. The swords were probably summoned to me because of my special abilities associated with the soul. Just a day later, we were attacked by the heartless. I met with Xehanort while looking for Sora and fighting the heartless before hiding with Sora in a cave where we found a door which took us to Traverse Town. I believe you know the rest."

"You're still hiding something. Sora said there was a reason you only opened up to Sora and Tidus, which would mean a reason for you to not trust people. He said he knew the reason but that he couldn't tell me. He also mentioned that something happened in Radiant Gardens, and the fact that Sora, Cloud, and Leon all mentioned something about you falling into darkness once before implies that it was pretty bad. Stop being so damn secretive!"

"My past is my business, and I can be secretive if I want to. You're lucky I told you anything at all!"

Immediately after, Namine disappeared through a portal.

"Damnit Namine!"

Riku left the room and slammed the door behind him before going his room.

When he got there, he found Sora sitting on his floor.

"So Riku, Namine tell you some of her secrets but not all of them?"

"Yes! She's really pissing me off!"

"I figured as much. I'll talk to her. If she still refuses to tell you, I'll explain everything after night training. That okay?"

"Yeah. Thanks Sora."

"No problem. Besides, I get the feeling she doesn't want you to get too angry with her. She's sadistic, but she never liked it when people got angry. It scares her when people get angry with her. Even though she's not feeling it now, it'll all come back when she has her heart again. Also, if you two stop being friends, I'll have to choose between you, and that wouldn't be fun." He had said the last sentence with a wide grin, but Riku wasn't fooled by the fake joy.

Riku was actually glad in a way that Sora wouldn't want to choose between them, but another side of him was jealous of Kairi (Namine) because she always came first. "_I still haven't figured out if he's gay… I wonder…"_

Riku was anxious during night training. He kept catching Sora grinning at him, so he assumed Namine was going to explain things, or she was letting Sora explain things. Either way, he would discover all of her secrets tonight.

After the training was finished, Riku was more than a little annoyed due to the severe beating he had received from Cloud, and Sora pulled him and Namine down to the basement/computer room.

"Namine, it's time to tell Riku the WHOLE truth. Don't leave anything out this time!"

Namine just sighed. "Yeah, I know. By the way, Riku, I'm sorry. I guess it was just my trust issues resurfacing… again."

"Uhhh… it's cool. I'm fine with it really. I just wanted to know."

At that point, Sora smiled. He was glad the two weren't mad at each other anymore.

"The first part I didn't explain is the first six years of my life. (Sigh) This part also explains my spiritual abilities. I was dead at the time of my birth. Basically, I was a stillborn. Something happened, and I ended up suddenly alive without any intervention from doctors. The moment I became alive, both of my parents dropped dead. I'm still not entirely sure what happened, but I know that, somehow, my parents' lives were taken away as a sort of sacrifice for my own life. The side affects being my ability to sense spirits, being able to summon my swords, and the ability to absorb spirits. Absorbing spirits would increase my strength. I have only accidentally absorbed one spirit and refuse to absorb any more. Back to the story… after my parents' sudden deaths, I was given foster parents. They hated me though. Since everyone else concluded that I had stolen the lives of my parents at birth, which I very well may have, I was treated like I was the living embodiment of evil. I was constantly punished by my foster parents even when I didn't do anything. When my mother and the girl who would have been my sister died, my father blamed me. He never tried to commit suicide, but he did try to kill me a few times. They were failed attempts though. Tidus was the son of the mayor of the main island. The mayor adopted me so that my foster father would stop trying to kill me, so Tidus became my brother. Eventually, I came to trust him, so when I met Sora, I tried to trust him since he was one of Tidus' best friends, and I ended up actually befriending him. Although it was progress, I still had trouble opening up to people. The next time I opened up to someone was when I met Leon and Cloud. I also opened up to Aerith and Yuffie a little, but not as much as Cloud and Leon, and not nearly as much as Sora and Tidus. I sort of envied the way Sora and the others were able to trust each other so easily, so I began to fall into darkness. Sora, Leon, and Cloud just barely saved me from becoming a heartless, but they saved me nonetheless. That time I paused when we first went to Radiant Gardens, I was thinking of that time, since that was the spot where I had almost become a heartless. What happened the second time was pretty much a repeat of the first. I knew I shouldn't have been envious of it, but I was. I knew I had no reason to descend into the darkness, but I couldn't help it. Now, you know everything. I have no more secrets about my past."

"…"

Riku was just staring blankly at the ceiling, trying to get over the shock of his new discoveries.

"Riku? Are you alright?" Sora's voice was filled with concern for his friend.

"I'm fine."

Namine sighed. "I'll go back to my room now. If you have any more questions, just ask Sora."

"Okay." The two said in unison.

"I can't believe it."

"But it's true. It took a while for me to get over the shock too. You should get some sleep. It helps."

"Right. Thanks, Sora."

"No problem."

The two walked back up to their rooms to sleep. At the same time, Namine was sitting in her room in silence. She couldn't sleep, but she couldn't bring herself to do anything else. It had been a while since she told someone her entire life story. If she had a heart at that time, she would have cried, but she couldn't do that either.

It made her feel empty and alone for the first time since she became a nobody.

She didn't like it.

* * *

The next day, Riku had gotten over the shock he was in. As he reviewed everything he had learned, he realized something. He ran up to Sora's room and shook him awake.

"Sora! Wake up!"

"What? Riku? Why are you…?"

"I just realized Namine never said whose spirit she absorbed."

"Huh…? Oh, yeah. It was her foster sister's. She got really mad at Kairi one day, and afterwards, Kairi was sick of being tortured the way she was. At the time, nobody knew about her foster mother's pregnancy, so Kairi ran up to her and tackled her to the ground. In her anger, she accidentally absorbed the spirit of the baby inside of her. This caused the mother to get sick and die giving birth to a stillborn. Kairi felt really bad that she had stolen the spirit of an unborn child, even if she had done so unwillingly. She swore to herself that she would never absorb another spirit. Without a spirit, you can't exist. The 'will' which allows nobodies to be created is their strong heart causing their spirit to split in two pieces giving them a chance of regaining a complete existence. This is done subconsciously, and nobodies don't remember anything about the process."

"How could you possibly know that?"

"I became a heartless once, but for different reasons than Kairi. Kairi was there, so she was able to sense my spirit's role in the process. The only reason she was able to bring me back was that she was able to combine the two pieces of my spirit, therefore merging my heartless with my nobody causing my captive heart to be released into my nobody. The process allowed me to return to my normal self. It was strange. The feeling of have your spirit split in two and then having them brought back together is unbelievable."

"That's strange. Why couldn't she just merge with her heartless then?"

"It's easier to control someone else's spirit than your own, apparently. Even if she could have, that would prevent her from being able to investigate the leader of the nobodies from the inside. Having her on the inside made things a lot easier."

"I see. In the end, saving the worlds always comes first, right?"

"Yeah. It would be irresponsible of us to think our happiness was more important than all the worlds."

"…I guess so…"

"We should go eat before morning training."

Sora grinned and dragged his friend down the stairs to the kitchen, where they found Cloud, Leon, Zexion, Larxene, Luxord, and Saix eating at the large blue table in the center of the white, blue, and various shades of gray room.

Demyx suddenly came out of the training room screaming. "Sora! Riku! You're awake!"

Riku sighed while Sora chuckled.

Zexion rubbed his head. "Must you do that every time someone walks in here?"

"Yes!"

Larxene threw her knife at the blonde man before he could think. Demyx just barely avoided the projectile before nervously laughing and silently slipping back into the training room.

Luxord laughed. "That reminds me of the time Demyx ran through the apartment complex at 2 in the morning screaming that he wanted a cookie."

Larxene growled. "He crashed through my door rambling about how Zexion refused to give him his daily cookie. I had been having one of the best night's sleep I'd had in years when he woke me up!"

Saix looked up from his food. "When we came to investigate, Larxene was fuming. Before we could calm Demyx down, she threw him out the eighth story window. Fortunately, he landed on a pile of trash bags which cushioned his fall."

Riku laughed nostalgically. "He still broke his left leg though."

They could barely hear Demyx whimpering at the memory from inside the training room. Larxene laughed sadistically at the sound. "He never woke me up in the middle of the night again after that. He was also stuck in his apartment or limping on crutches for the next few weeks."

Sora stared at the group of laughing friends. _Either they were always this sadistic, or it's contagious and they all got it from Larxene. It's creepy._

Riku and Sora then sat at the table to eat. Everyone except Namine eventually joined them for breakfast. Namine didn't show up until morning training and went back to her room immediately after.

Larxene motioned for Sora and Riku to follow her and led them to the computer room. She typed in a few passwords, and pretty soon, they were looking at Namine's room.

"I'll rewind the video to last night."

The video played everything that had happened since the previous night, sped up. All they saw the entire time, was Namine sitting on the bed, occasionally drawing or pacing, humming nameless melodies which, slowed down, would have been quite haunting and melancholy.

At one point, Sora managed to recognize one of the melodies. He had apparently heard Tidus humming it once while on the island. "Tidus said it was the melody of a song people would sing at funerals. He had gotten it stuck in his head from when it played at Kairi's foster mother's burial."

Larxene looked confused. "Foster mother?"

Riku sighed. "It's a long story which I don't think Kairi wants anyone to know. Just drop it for now. That does explain how she knows it though."

Sora nodded. "Why she's humming it is a completely different story. Why is she humming funeral songs?"

Larxene remained in silence for a moment. "Funeral songs represent mourning the dead. Perhaps she's sad and mourning something. Of course, they can also represent a feeling of emptiness which is left behind by the death of a loved one. The true impact of becoming a nobody may have just hit her. The empty feeling one has without a heart. Humming funeral songs may be her way of dealing with the emptiness."

Sora paused in thought. "Has she done this before?"

"Never. I suppose she didn't notice the emptiness before because she was so focused on plotting against Xemnas. Now it could be returning with a vengeance."

Riku and Sora both ran out of the room and up the stairs as fast as they could. Larxene turned off the computer and returned to her room.

Namine was pacing the floor humming another funeral song when Riku and Sora suddenly burst through the door. They were both panting. _Why were they running? What's the rush?_

Riku was the first to regain his composure. "Namine, umm…"

"What is it?"

Sora suddenly straightened. "You know what's up! If something's wrong you should tell us!"

"I don't want to hear that from you. Sora, you hide your feelings all the time. Don't be a hypocrite."

Riku was lost. "What are you talking about?"

"You as well. Everyone hides their feelings, it's human nature to do so. Plus, technically, I don't have feelings. I'm a heartless shell with half a soul."

"Exactly!" Sora was getting angry. "Without a heart, you must feel empty."

"So what? I'll get over it or just deal with it until get my heart back. There's nothing you can do to help, so what's the point in telling you?"

Sora screamed and left the room.

"You just going to stand there or do something? Go talk to Sora. He has a heart which means he feels pain. Go comfort him. You're just wasting time with me."

Riku hesitated for a moment before, more quietly, following Sora closing the door gently behind him.

They both arrived in Sora's room thinking the same thing.

In unison, both Sora and Riku suddenly asked, "What are you hiding?"

Sora thought for a moment.

_Flashback_

"_Hey Namine! Why did you not tell Riku everything about your past?"_

"_I still don't entirely trust him."_

"_Why not?"_

"_Why do you think?"_

"_Oh… right…"_

"_He likes you, by the way. He thinks you're straight though, for some reason."_

"_What gives you that idea?"_

"_It's too obvious to possibly miss."_

"_Ummm… well…anyway. Can you please tell him the rest after night training."_

_Namine sighed. "Fine."_

"_Great!"_

_Sora ran out of the room with a grin on his face._

Riku was looking at Sora curiously. _What's he thinking about?_

"Uhh… Riku…"

"Yeah?"

"Just in case you didn't notice… uhh…"

"What is it?"

"I'm gay." Sora blushed for a moment, but it faded back to his normal skin tone within a few seconds.

"Really?"

"Yeah."

"Why is everyone in our group of friends gay?"

"What?"

"Me, you, Cloud, Leon, Demyx, Zexion, Axel, and Roxas are all gay. All of the nobodies who used to be my friends are all gay too, other than Larxene of course, though she is bi."

"You're gay?"

"Yeah. I thought it was obvious."

"How?"

"…how what?"

"How is it obvious?"

Riku clenched his teeth before sighing loudly. "You're so oblivious it's not even funny sometimes."

Sora thought about what Namine told him. "Do you…"

Riku walked up to Sora and quickly, and gently, kissed him, causing Sora to blush more.

"Does that answer your question?"

Sora nodded.

* * *

Namine smirked. _Finally. It's about time they got together. I still feel bad about making Sora angry, but somehow, even when I'm not trying I can make things happen. I scare myself sometimes. _

She was so amused that she had accidentally played matchmaker, she momentarily forgot the emptiness she had felt moments before. It didn't last long though. Within minutes, she had resumed her humming and pacing, trying to rid herself of her emptiness.

* * *

Axel and Roxas were playing poker with Luxord and Larxene.

Larxene ran out of chips an hour ago and had begun to accept dares whenever she lost. She had just received a dare to drag Namine down to play poker with them.

Although she would never admit it, Larxene was just a little scared of the girl.

"Can't I do something else?"

Luxord smirked. "If you do this dare, you get all of my chips, and I'll have to start accepting dares."

Larxene bit her lip. It was very tempting.

'Or you could just stop playing…"

"No, I'll do it."

"Good girl."

Larxene arrived at Namine's door and walked in. She suddenly grabbed the young nobody's hair and dragged her, struggling, down to the kitchen.

Namine saw the group that had gathered and noticed that they were playing poker.

"I'm not playing." With that, Namine disappeared through a portal back to her room.

"Looks like you're out Larx."

"Crap!"

* * *

Demyx and Zexion were watching a movie with Leon, Cloud, Xigbar, and Xaldin.

Zexion sighed. "What is the point of this movie?"

Demyx smiled. "That kid is under house arrest, and his neighbor is killing people. He's sees him kill the person through the window and tries to bust him for it."

Xigbar screamed lie he was on a roller coaster. "Disturbia is the most amazing movie… in all the worlds! Yeah!"

Xaldin sighed. "Zexion's right. The plot is weak. I don't see the purpose. Xigbar's antics are far more amusing."

Leon nodded in agreement while Cloud just got up and left.

Demyx watched him as he walked to the door. "Where are you going?"

"To my room. This movie is ridiculous."

Leon left the room a few minutes after the blonde man, followed by Zexion and Xaldin.

Demyx and Xigbar were too busy screaming for joy due to the movie to notice their departures.

* * *

Marluxia and Vexen were in an argument about pink hair in the training room.

"The fact that I have pink hair has nothing to do with my strength!"

"Pink hair is for pansies!"

"Is not!"

"You're acting like a child."

"Why you…"

Saix walked in at that moment. "He's right. You're being very immature."

"See I told you!"

"Vexen, you are also being an immature idiot."

"Come on! Don't be so mean Saix!"

Lexaeus then entered the kitchen. "What's with the yelling?"

Vexen and Marluxia looked at the door just in time to see Lexaeus walk in with a curious stare.

Saix left the room. "They're just being immature."

Marluxia and Vexen both yelled in unison, "What?!"

Lexaeus just shrugged. "Works for me."

Marluxia walked out of the room. "I blame you."

Vexen just stood there for a few moments, silent, before stomping up the stairs to his own room.

* * *

Namine watched the security tapes with a small smirk.

_It seems everyone's getting along. That's good, because things are about to get complicated. I wonder how they'll handle working in teams together. (sigh) This will be interesting._

She laughed as the rest of the recording played. She figured researching her knew leads would be able to keep her mind off of the emptiness plaguing her.

_I can't wait to get started._

**This is my longest chapter so far. **

**I'm so happy! Yay! I made Kairi/Namine an emo-freak! Yeah her past is a little strange... and a little unbelievable, but I made it up. It doesn't have to be believable. Yay weird random crap!**

**Anyway, yeah. It was a bit longer than my other chapters. Okay, more than a bit. **

**Next chapter the search for the hearts begins! Time to introduce Kingdom Hearts!**

**That's it. Have fun!**


	9. New Leads Hearts and Spirits

**Chapter Nine: New Leads-Hearts and Spirits**

After just three days in their new, temporary home, all seventeen teenagers were once again gathered in the pillar room.

Namine cleared her throat. "I've been sensing a strange presence in Halloween Town which I can't seem to identify. It is vaguely familiar, though, and I believe it may belong to a being which can be of use to our goal. Sora, you'll be going there with Riku and Xigbar. (she ignored the confused stares everyone was giving her) Cloud, Leon, and Marluxia… I want you to go to Neverland. Something is going on there. I just can't seem to figure out just what's wrong, but it seems different. Demyx, Axel, and Larxene… I want you to go back to Traverse Town for a while. See if anything has changed, and report back here in a five days. I'll be doing the same thing in Destiny Islands with Roxas and Zexion, just in case. Saix and Vexen… I want you two to stay here while the rest of you, Xaldin, Luxord, and Lexaeus, go to Land of Dragons. Every once in a while, a presence disappears without a trace. I want to know what's going on. Does everyone know what to do?"

Xaldin rubbed his chin in thought. "I won't question the groups you chose, though they are strange, but when are the ones without specified times to return?"

"When you have accomplished your mission."

"How?" Sora had spoken this time. "What exactly are the missions?"

"The Halloween Town group is to find out what the presence is and capture it, if possible. The Neverland group is to return once the problem is investigated and solved. The Land of Dragons group shall return when they find out why people are disappearing and where to, if possible. The other two leaving groups will return in five days. Any other questions?"

All sixteen replied a short 'no' before leaving the room by either walking out, or vanishing through a portal.

Namine just sighed. "Time for things to get interesting."

* * *

Sora, Riku, and Xigbar walked through a portal and appeared in Halloween Town. Riku looked around.

"What do you think this 'presence' is?"

Sora thought for a moment. "It could be anything with a spirit… which doesn't narrow things down much since it could be something we've never seen before."

Xigbar laughed. "Whatever it is, I'm sure we can handle it."

The two other boys sighed and said, in unison, "Why are you here?"

"Namine told me to come with you, so I did. Neither of you can open portals anyway."

Sora rolled his eyes. "Don't need to. I can drive a gummi ship."

"Which you'd need to go to Wonderland to find."

"Right… anyway… I can't sense anything, even at this range. It may not have a heart."

Riku shrugged. "Probably. I don't know."

Xigbar suddenly ran to the curly hill. Riku and Sora had no choice but to follow him. When they arrived, they saw a faceless, floating figure wearing a long silver cloak similar to the black cloaks they were wearing not including the color difference.

Sora walked toward it. "Uhh… what are you?"

He wasn't really expecting a response, but he got one anyway.

"I am a spirit."

"What kind of spirit?"

"A half spirit without a host."

The voice sounded female and oddly familiar.

"What happened to your host… and the other half of you?"

"My host turned into a heartless which you destroyed. I was the half spirit contained within that heartless. For reasons unknown, I was unable to go to where I belong with the other half spirits which were once contained by heartless and nobodies. Perhaps it's because the other half of my spirit is trying to pull me towards it, but I don't know where it is. I know it's still in a nobody though."

Riku thought for a moment before he widened his eyes. "Your host wouldn't happen to be Kairi would it?"

"Yes. How did you know?"

"I had a feeling. Come with us. We know where the other half of your spirit is."

"Really? I'm glad. I thought I would remain half a spirit lingering here forever."

Sora smiled. "Now Namine's spirit will be whole. We still don't know where her heart is though."

"Well, when a heartless is destroyed, their captive heart goes to kingdom hearts. If you find a way to get inside, you should be able to find the hearts of any heartless you've destroyed. There's also a portal there which leads to the spirit realm where half spirits go."

"How do you know that?"

"It's knowledge automatically gained by every half spirit once they are released from their heartless or nobody."

Sora and Riku shrugged while Xigbar jumped for joy screaming, "We're one step closer to getting back the hearts of all nobodies! There's even a portal in The World That Never Was that will lead to Kingdom Hearts once it's fueled with enough hearts!"

Sora gasped. "Really?!"

"Yeah. What did you think the heart shaped moon was?"

Riku looked at Sora and smiled. "It seems we're closer to our goal than we thought."

Xigbar opened a portal which they all walked through.

Namine looked at them with a blank stare until she saw the figure behind them.

"The other half of my spirit? No wonder the presence seemed familiar."

The cloaked figure was absorbed into the nobody immediately.

"Your mission is done. You may rest now. I have gained all the knowledge held within my half spirit, so you don't have to explain anything. Almost all of the heartless have been destroyed already. There are only around a dozen left. I'll go see if we can enter Kingdom Hearts."

"What happened to your five day mission?" Riku was very confused.

"I haven't left yet."

"Oh."

* * *

Marluxia practically dragged Cloud and Leon through the portal. He was excited to finally have something to do again. He had been getting bored.

Unfortunately, he had been grouped with the two most anti-social people who also happened to be the two he knew the least about. It was definitely bringing down his good mood.

The three found themselves on a pirate ship facing a boy dressed in green.

"Cloud and Leon right? I remember the two of you from last time you were here with Sora and Kairi. How is everyone?"

Leon sighed. "Sora's fine. Kairi became a heartless. Her nobody, Namine, is searching for a way to return hearts to nobodies. Everyone is helping. Has anything strange been happening here?"

"Hmm… not really. I found a weird box a few days ago, but I can't open it."

Marluxia rubbed his head. "May we take a look?"

"Sure. Maybe you can open it."

Cloud and Leon nodded while Marluxia sighed. _I wish they'd talk more._

Peter led them into the ship and stopped in front of a large black box with a picture of a key on top.

Leon looked at the box. "We should have Sora look at this."

Cloud nodded. Marluxia opened another portal and brought them back to the pillar room after saying a quick 'Bye'.

When they arrived, Sora looked at the box. He tapped it with his keyblade, like he would a treasure chest, but nothing happened. Namine stepped in after he had tried it three times, since she still hadn't left for her mission. (She had a feeling the Halloween Town group wouldn't be the only group to finish early)

"Why don't you try touching the tip of the keyblade to the picture on the box which clearly represents a key?"

Sora, Riku, Marluxia, Cloud, and Leon stared at her and suddenly felt the urge to bang their heads against the wall, which Marluxia actually did.

Sure enough, the moment the keyblade touched the picture, the box opened.

Everyone in the room, except Namine, sweat dropped. They were all thinking something along the lines of: _How does she always know this stuff and why didn't we think of that?_

Namine joined them to look inside the box. "It's a computer disc. I'll bring it to the basement and find out what's on it."

Marluxia gaped at the disc. "That disc was all that was in that huge box?"

Cloud nodded.

"WHY CAN'T YOU JUST TALK LIKE A NORMAL PERSON?!"

Cloud shrugged before following Leon upstairs. Sora and Riku left to see if Namine was making any progress with the disc. Marluxia sighed. _So weird…_

In the basement, Namine watched as many windows opened on the computer screen after she inserted the disc. Sora and Riku walked in to see dozens of windows on the screen. Each had a strange message about spirits and the spirit realm.

Sora gasped. "What is this?"

Namine browsed through the many windows. "It seems to be a message. Someone was trying to tell someone how to get into the spirit realm where they would be able to harness the power of half spirits for some unknown purpose."

She looked through a few more windows. "Apparently, it was for Xemnas."

Riku and Sora looked at the window at the center of the screen.

'The girl, Kairi, is the key to the spirit realm. Be careful though, she's smart. Don't ruin your chances, Xemnas.'

Riku nodded. "Apparently. After we give all the nobodies their hearts, they'll probably want the other halves of their spirits. We'll need you to retrieve the half spirits from the spirit realm and return them to their hosts."

"Yeah. First, we have to get into Kingdom Hearts. One of these windows said something about, 'making an offering to the moon'. I don't know what kind of offering it meant. It could have meant the hearts being released which we've already been doing, or it could mean a human, spirit, or heart sacrifice. I'll keep looking though. The notes seem to be scrambled. I'll let you know when I put them together."

Sora grinned. "Great. We'll see you around then. Work hard!"

Sora pulled Riku out of the room and up the stairs where they separated to go to their own rooms.

* * *

Xaldin, Luxord, and Lexaeus stepped out of the portal and landed in snow.

Luxord growled. "I hate snow! What does Namine think she's doing?! Why did I have to be on this mission? Why couldn't I be on the Traverse Town mission or something? Anything would be better than 'Land of Dragons'."

Lexaeus shook his head. "Don't complain. It shouldn't take too long."

Suddenly, a portal opened in front of them, dragging the three into its depths.

Xaldin looked around but found he couldn't see anything except a large, silver door. "What's that? Lexaeus… Luxord… where'd you go?"

"We're right here. Behind you."

"Oh… there you are guys. What do you think that door leads to?"

Luxord looked at the silver door for a while. "Probably leads to wherever those disappearing presences went. Shall we go in?"

Lexaeus nodded. "That is our mission after all."

The three nobodies walked up to the door and opened it. On the other side, all they could see was a large number of silver-cloaked figures.

Xaldin shrink back. "What are you… you… things?"

All of the figures answered in unison. "We are half spirits. Would you like to find the missing halves of your spirits?"

"Yes. Where are they?"

"Among us."

"How can we find our own?"

"You'll know when you see them."

The three wandered through the realm for what seemed like hours before finding nine cloaked figures standing in front of a silver castle. Three of them walked to the nobodies and merged with them.

Luxord laughed. "Well that wasn't too hard. We should go tell Namine about this."

The others nodded and returned to the pillar room where they were told Namine was in the basement.

After fifteen minutes of explaining everything that happened in detail, Namine nodded. "I believe you went to the spirit realm. We'll all go after the five days are up. There may be a way to get to Kingdom Hearts through there. Thank you for letting me know. Congratulations on finding your half spirits. I'll let you know when I find out more on the subject. I'll leave for my own mission after I finish unscrambling this message. Go rest."

Xaldin chuckled. "No problem. It was our mission to do so after all."

The three then left through portals to their rooms while Namine continued piecing together the scrambled message.

"Just a little more. It won't be long now."

A few hours later, Namine printed out the completed message and handed a copy to the other thirteen beings in the castle.

'Xemnas, use the spirits to fulfill your goals. Their power is almost unbelievable. A half spirit is released into the spirit realm whenever a heartless or nobody is destroyed. Release them all, then go to Kingdom Hearts. Make a sacrifice to the moon to open the door. Allow it to feed off of a strong heart. Once you are inside, you will find a silver door. The girl, Kairi, is the key to the spirit realm. Be careful though, she's smart. Don't ruin your chances, Xemnas. Have her absorb all the spirits, then kill her. All the power she gained will be given to you. Then enter the castle to return to Kingdom Hearts. All the hearts will come to you and give you their power. Once you have absorbed them all, will yourself back to The World That Never Was. You will find yourself there. Don't ask how or why, it will just happen. Upon leaving Kingdom hearts, you will be the most powerful being to ever exist. Use the power wisely. Good luck. From, The Darkness.'

Sora read the message out loud. "What does it mean by 'The Darkness'?"

Namine sighed. "I'm not sure. It may be a code name. We won't need to worry about giving a sacrifice since we can now enter Kingdom hearts through the castle in the spirit realm which we can enter from Land of Dragons. The other two missions are now unnecessary in my opinion. I'll go get the others."

Namine disappeared into a portal before returning a few minutes later with Demyx, Axel, and Larxene in tow.

Everyone looked at Namine. She nodded. "Now, we shall go to Land of Dragons. Our final destination is Kingdom Hearts. We'll find a way to release all the hearts and half spirits to find their hosts."

The sixteen others nodded before following Namine through a portal.

Riku and Sora stayed behind for a while.

"Riku, we're almost done. We're so close. Everything happened so fast."

"Yeah. There has to be a catch somewhere."

"Also, what comes after this?"

"We'll go home."

"We live in different worlds."

"We don't have to. Where do you want to go?"

"Uhh… I have more friends in Twilight Town. Kairi will want Tidus to be with us though."

"Why not bring him along?"

"Kairi would yell at me."

"Maybe, maybe not. Maybe she won't even want Tidus there. She has more friends now."

"I suppose you're right. We'll just have to wait and see."

"Yeah. We should probably join the others now."

"Right! I kinda forgot."

Both of them laughed before entering the portal which would lead them to the beginning of the end.

**Okay, I think next chapter will probably be the last one before an epilogue. If not, their will be the next chapter, one more, then an epilogue. I can only drag out the end so long. The next will probably be the last anyway. **

**I got back to a normal chapter length. The last one was a bit long. I hope the story hasn't turned out as horrible and rushed as I think it has... well I'm sorry if it was. I'm seriously considering killing someone... I don't know who though. If I do, I don't know if I will, it won't be anyone from any of the pairings. I'm not that mean to my characters... except Kairi. I enjoyed torturing her. :D Yay! I had to have at least one emo character. **

**Anyway, thank you people who are actually reading this story from beginning to end. **

**That's it. Have fun!**


	10. Dreams, Goals, and Adventures

**Chapter Ten: Dreams, Goals, and Adventures**

As soon as the seventeen teenagers set foot (feet) on Land of Dragons, a portal appeared in front of them as if it was waiting for their arrival.

Namine stepped through followed by all of her friends.

Upon entering, they found themselves surrounded by half spirits.

Namine seemed strangely… happy as the half spirits crowded towards the nobody. She looked at them like a mother would look at her children. Riku supposed it was just the fact that she had a strange connection to spirits from her birth. (Explanation in chapter 8 if you forgot)

The half spirits at the entrance to the castle came to them and merged with their nobodies to become whole once again. The nobodies were eager to get their hearts back though, so they really didn't pay much attention to it.

Namine turned to stare at them. "We don't know what's on the other side of this door, so be prepared for anything."

Everyone nodded before walking through the castle's entrance. On the other side, all became still.

"_Welcome to Kingdom Hearts. What do you seek?"_

The voice was soft, distant, and did not give any hints of any specific gender.

Sora took a step forward. "We want to return hearts to the nobodies… all nobodies."

_"What do you seek?"_

"I just told" Sora was abruptly cut off by Namine's arm held in front of him.

"We seek all the hearts previously held captive by the heartless."

_How will you use them?"_

"We will return them to the nobodies of their previous hosts."

_"How will you accomplish this?"_

Namine paused.

_"You are unsure. Do you not know how to accomplish your goal?"_

Without hesitation, Namine jumped toward what appeared to be a trench. Everyone began to call out to her in fear, only to see her seemingly float over the trench.

_"It appears you are not affected by illusions."_

Namine nodded and took three steps forward.

_"Do you fear what you see?"_

Namine just stood still.

Everyone else stared at her. They couldn't see what was beneath the illusion.

Namine saw the true image of Kingdom Hearts, and was stunned by it.

* * *

_Crystals of all colors, shapes, and sizes rose from the white ground. The sky was black with streaks of silver swirling around the tops of the crystal skyscrapers._

_Light reflected off the crystals creating multi-colored heart patterns on the ground forming a path leading to a black wall lined with hearts._

_Namine looked around her, frozen still._

"Do you fear what you see?"

_"No. I don't fear what I see at all."_

"What a strange girl. I shall grant you what you seek."

* * *

When the teenagers heard that Kingdom Hearts would 'grant what they sought', they prepared to run to Namine, until she held her hand up to stop them.

"You can't see beyond the illusion. Stay there. I will collect the hearts. I don't know what will come, but you'll be defenseless against them since you won't know they're there. Let me handle this."

Everyone looked at each other before each taking a few steps back.

They watched as Namine walked in a curving line which they assumed was a path.

* * *

_Namine walked down the path of hearts towards the wall which represented everything she had been searching for in the last few months. She reached the wall and touched a hand to the black surface._

_She watched with a smile as the hearts separated themselves from the wall and moved toward the door they had used to enter Kingdom Hearts. All except one. _

_One stayed behind._

_Namine looked up at the heart and reached out to it._

_It came towards her and entered her chest._

_She then turned to watch as several others did the same with her friends._

_"We did it."_

"You have found what you sought. The hearts will follow you through the spirit realm, as the spirits will follow you and the hearts to Land of Dragons. They will then go to their hosts' nobodies. You must leave now. The portal to the spirit realm will disappear after you return."

_"Thank you."_

* * *

Namine then turned back to her friends who were all smiling and transformed into a girl with blood red hair wearing a red t-shirt and silver/blue jeans.

Everyone gaped at her.

Sora took a step forward. She still looked different, but she looked more like her old self. "Does this mean you're going to be Kairi again?"

"Of course. What, did you think I was going to stay like that forever? I was starting to get sick of wearing a dress. They're so uncomfortable."

Everyone, except Cloud, Leon, Zexion, and Larxene, shouted, "Yay, Kairi! Welcome back!"

Kairi looked at all the hearts still floating above their heads. "We should really start returning these hearts and half spirits."

Everyone nodded and followed her into the spirit realm. All the silver figures followed them out to Land of Dragons, just as Kingdom Hearts said.

They all watched the spirits and hearts fly through the air, heading toward the nobodies they belonged to.

Sora looked around before he gasped. "Won't more heartless just be created?! Then the nobodies they form, their hearts, and spirits will be trapped forever!"

Kairi sighed. "Calm down Sora. Kingdom Hearts will automatically send the hearts and spirits back."

"How do you know?"

"It's what we sought. Kingdom Hearts promised to give us what we sought, so we will never have to worry about nobodies ever again, and the small amount of heartless that will form every once in a while will be defeated quickly and their hearts will be released. Therefore, we have absolutely nothing to worry about."

"Oh. Well then, where should we go now?"

"What do you mean? Aren't we going to Twilight Town?"

"W-What?"

"I wouldn't dare separate you from your boyfriend, and we both have a lot more friends there than we ever did in Destiny Islands. I thought it was obvious we would go there. Unless, you don't want to that is…"

"No! I want to go!"

"Okay then. Everyone follow me!"

All seventeen teenagers went to Radiant Gardens first to drop off Cloud and Leon before going to Twilight Town.

Sora moved into Riku's apartment while Kairi went back to the apartment down the hall she and Sora stayed at the first time they came to the world. (If anyone forgot about that, shame on you. It hasn't been that long since the first chapter.)

* * *

Three years later, Sora, Riku, and Kairi were preparing to go to a party Demyx and Zexion were throwing. They had taken over Xemnas' mansion since he was still trapped in the World That Never Was because of Kairi's/Namine's cage.

It was still about a half-hour before the party would begin, but the three were already set to go. They decided it couldn't hurt to be a little early since they were so close to the hosts.

When they arrived, they didn't bother knocking, but Sora called, "We're here!", as soon as they entered.

Nobody had gotten there yet. Kairi practically skipped to the center of the large ballroom. "This is going to be interesting. This will be my first time going to a big party. Sora got to go to one the first time we came here, but I was busy searching for and destroying stray heartless. I wasn't able to come. I'm looking forward to it!"

Riku sighed as he watched the girl act more childish than he had ever seen her act as she ran around the room like a little girl on the first day of school, looking forward to a day of meeting new friends and playing around all day. He had to hold back a laugh while Sora chased Kairi in circles.

Five minutes before the party was supposed to begin, Kairi stopped suddenly causing Sora to run into her bringing both to the ground.

Riku's eyes widened. "What's up, Kairi?"

"_He's_ here."

"Who?"

As if on cue, a man with long silver hair walked through the door and glared at Kairi who just glared back. "Xemnas… how did you escape?"

"I managed to find the drawing you made and erased a wall from the cage. It was simple. I had a feeling you'd be in this world. I wasn't expecting you at _my_ castle though."

"You can't defeat me Xemnas. This time I have weapons and you don't. You're at a serious disadvantage."

"Did you think I came here alone?"

"Excuse me?"

Suddenly, everyone who had previously worked for Xemnas before Namine took over, arrived and surrounded the three. All eight of them began to attack. Four were focused on Kairi while Sora and Riku were each attacked by two.

Before long, all three were struggling. They probably could have defeated their opponents, but they were hesitant to attack their friends.

Just as Sora was about to receive a fatal wound from Larxene, Kairi suddenly rose into the air. The eleven others in the room stared at her, distracted.

The nine assailants felt something pulling on them. A moment later, everyone in the room except Kairi, Riku, and Sora dropped dead, and Kairi glowed silver for a few seconds before descending to the ground. As her feet returned to the floor, the bodies disintegrated just as Demyx and Zexion walked down the stairs.

Demyx ran to them with a worried look. "Are you three alright? We heard fighting. What happened?"

Kairi sighed. "Xemnas escaped and came here. He managed to recruit those who used to follow him when they were nobodies, except me, and they attacked us. Larxene was about to kill Sora, so I absorbed all their spirits. It didn't feel right though. I can sense their spirits within me. They all want control, but my would-be-sister's spirit is containing them, so there's nothing wrong with that."

The other four standing in the room just stared at her for a minute before people started flooding into the room.

They all pretended nothing had happened as the party progressed, but they all wanted to talk to Kairi before the night ended.

After the party was over and everyone except, Riku, Sora, Kairi, Demyx, and Zexion had left, Kairi was surrounded.

Riku stared at her. "I though you promised yourself you'd never absorb another spirit." Demyx and Zexion had never heard of Kairi's past, so they were clueless. Sora just told them they would explain later.

"It was an emergency. We were outnumbered and hesitant to attack our friends while they were at an advantage and were mercilessly attacking us. I couldn't just wait for us to be killed one by one, and absorbing their spirits was the easiest way to do that."

With that being said, Kairi disappeared through a portal.

Sora and Riku explained Kairi's past to Demyx and Zexion (chapter 8) who were confused at first, but then understood what had happened. Everything suddenly made sense to them, and they were surprised by Kairi's past.

Sora and Riku then returned to their apartment while Demyx and Zexion retreated to their rooms and told Axel and Roxas everything they had learned.

The next day, Kairi wasn't seen by anyone. Sora and Riku checked her apartment, but she wasn't there. Demyx, Zexion, Axel, and Roxas searched all over Twilight Town, The World That Never Was, and Radiant Gardens but couldn't find a single trace of her.

Two months went by without anyone having a clue where Kairi had gone. She had just disappeared.

Sora and Riku were visiting all the worlds, yes… all of them, as they did every few weeks when Simba told them Kairi had sent a message there saying she was in Kingdom Hearts searching for something.

The two boys sighed. Sora fell to the ground. "What could she possibly be looking for without telling us?"

Riku bowed his head. "I don't know. What I'm wondering is how she got back there and sent a message here."

"I don't know. Whatever the reason, and no matter how she did it, I'm sure she'll come back."

Riku nodded.

* * *

Kairi stood before the black wall and looked at the nine hearts gathered.

_"What do you seek?"_

"…"

_"What do you want to give up?"_

"Nine spirits. I want you to keep them here, and never let them out."

_"Is that really what you want?"_

"Yes."

_"Go to the spirit realm, the nine spirits will leave you. Unfortunately, you will be bound to serve Kingdom Hearts forever."_

_"_Alright."

_"Go."_

Kairi walked through the silver door into the spirit realm. The nine foreign presences left her body to roam through the dark area. She then returned to the castle entrance and reentered Kingdom Hearts.

Kairi then sent a message to her friends.

* * *

When Sora and Riku returned, they found a note on their door. Riku just sat on the couch and read it, his eyes widening as the note went on.

"What does it say?"

_Sora and Riku,_

_In order to remove the nine extra spirits from my body, I went to Kingdom Hearts for assistance. We made a deal, so the spirits are being held in the spirit realm to never be released, and I shall be forced to serve the will of Kingdom Hearts forever. You will probably never see me again._

_I'm glad I became friends with you and the others. I had fun. Let the others know I'm alright and don't worry about me. I can handle this. Bye!_

_ From, _

_ Kairi_

_P.S. – Have fun without me! Smile! Don't give in to the darkness! I wish you luck!_

After both read the note, they almost cried… almost. They controlled themselves though. Their other friends did so as well.

The friends eventually grew old and died, while Kairi stayed in Kingdom Hearts.

Many years later, spiritual beings, labeled Soul Eaters, began to haunt the worlds creating beings without souls, called Incompletes.

Kairi was finally sent out of Kingdom Hearts to handle the problem.

She gained great power from absorbing the souls of the Soul Eaters which contained more spirit power than average souls. The souls of the Incompletes were released, and Kingdom Hearts decided to reward Kairi for her work.

She was reincarnated with her friends in Destiny Islands, where she lived a better life. A peaceful, happy life with her friends, Sora, Riku, Cloud, Leon, Demyx, Zexion, Axel, and Roxas.

Sometimes, dreams become reality. Other times, they're crushed. Every other time, they're just insignificant. Not affecting the world at all.

Therefore, when dreams become reality, be grateful. Not many dreams come true.

And for every dream which does come true, at least two more are crushed, and at least four more are forgotten. So for every seven or more dreams, only one is granted.

If that one is yours, beware. Things hardly ever turn out well, when dreams become reality.

**If you couldn't tell, I've decided to just end it here. This is the end of the fanfiction. There will be no epilogue. There will be no sequel. A few explanations for why I had certain parts of the story included and all that are in my profile.  
**

**I hope you enjoyed it. Have fun!**


End file.
